This case study gives useful insights regarding the factors to consider when establishing a trading system. Members of the Australian CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems project review the scientific and social information and processes necessary to develop a cap and trade system that will give incentives to increase groundwater recharge, including: how to define, measure and allocate spatially variable irrigator recharge responsibilities, what institutional and organizational infrastructure must be developed including property right instruments as well as monitoring and policing, what trading and compliance considerations must be incorporated.