  Citation: Allan, C.; Watts, R.J. Framing Two Environmental Flow Trials in the Murray-Darling Basin, South-Eastern Australia. Water 2022, 14, 411. https://doi.org/10.3390/ w14030411 Academic Editors: Pankaj Kumar and Ana Iglesias Received: 30 November 2021 Accepted: 25 January 2022 Published: 29 January 2022 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). water Article Framing Two Environmental Flow Trials in the Murray-Darling Basin, South-Eastern Australia Catherine Allan * and Robyn J. Watts Institute for Land, Water and Society, School of Agricultural, Environmental and Veterinary Sciences, Charles Sturt University, Albury 2640, Australia; rwatts@csu.edu.au * Correspondence: callan@csu.edu.au; Tel.: +61-2-60519781 Abstract: We make sense of the world around us through mental knowledge structures called ‘frames’. Frames, and the metaphors that help to form and maintain them, can be studied through examining discourse. In this paper, we aim to understand the framing of two trials with environmental water by analysing interview-derived discourse. Two separate flow trials, involving changes to river operating rules and practices, were undertaken in the Edward/Kolety-Wakool river system in Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin in 2017 and 2018, as part of the adaptive delivery of water for the environment. Semi-structured interviews with 18 actors in the Edward/Kolety-Wakool river system were undertaken in 2019, in which they reflected on the trials and the use of environmental water in the area. Analysis of the interviews suggest four framings of environmental water, which we have labelled business, engineering, science and medical. Each frame privileges expert practice, potentially marginalising other ways of experiencing and knowing the river system. ‘Participants’ in the social learning/adaptive management occurring in this situation, especially those with authority or influence, should be open to exploring alternate framings of situations. We present this small research project as a practical example of how a focus on revealing and considering discourse can provide interested actors with avenues for co-creation of new understandings and practice. Keywords: environmental water; Murray-Darling Basin; adaptive management; flow trials; frames; metaphor 1. Introduction We make sense of the world around us through frames; mental knowledge structures located in our memories that store ‘typical’ data [1] that provide connection between cognition and culture [2]. Framing a topic accentuates one view of a particular situation over other possible views, drawing on background knowledge to do so [3]. Metaphor plays a key role in developing and reinforcing frames [4,5]. Metaphor is understanding one kind of thing through reference to another [6], and as such it is an embedded human action rather than a linguistic choice [7]; that is, we live metaphor, rather than ‘use’ metaphor. The way situations are ‘framed’ can, however, be studied through paying attention to the discourse (words and images) in the situation [8], with a focus on metaphors and their entailments [9,10]. Entailments are the package of related ideas that come with a metaphorical concept [11]. For example, when life is understood as (i.e., framed as) ‘a journey’, there is internal logic in calling a birthday a ‘milestone’, and death the ‘end of the road’. This framing brings expectations of destinations to be reached, distance to be covered, barriers to progress, and many of the trappings of being a good traveler. Many studies of metaphors related to environmental and natural resource manage- ment have been undertaken over the past 30 years [12]. These have included exploration of metaphorical concepts ranging from specifics, for example the health of farm animals [13], to broader ideas such as nature [14] and sustainability [15]. Reflection on metaphors and Water 2022, 14, 411. https://doi.org/10.3390/w14030411 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/water