The $600,000 ARC Linkage and the Department of Water, Land & Biodiversity Conservation-funded project will help water system managers make the best use of available resources.

The University of Adelaide Integrated Water Systems Engineering's Holger Maier, one of the organisers of the project along with Prof Graeme Dandy, said the project would develop an integrated approach to water resource management.

"We want to come up with the best overall strategy to manage the drainage system," he said.

"There are lots of options and ways to direct the water and what will happen.

"But you need a good model to show you what's going on and work out a system that comes up with the best strategies, to get the best outcomes."

Prof Maier said the project was working to deliver benefits to pastoralists, the environment, and to control flood damage.

But that there would always be compromises between the three objectives.

"Unfortunately, with any of these systems there's not any perfect solution," he said.

"There's not one solution that makes everybody happy so there are always going to be trade-offs."

The 'Innovative approach to the optimal management of water resources and application to the Upper South East Region of South Australia' would result in a geographic information system model being developed with a visual interface that people could use.

It would also provide an increased understanding of surface and groundwater interactions, the ecological water requirements of wetlands, and the impact of drainage of saline groundwater on soils and pasture, Prof Maier said.