1. Monitoring and evaluating Murray-Darling river health
conditions across many state jurisdictions: The
Sustainable Rivers Audit (SRA) best practice model
Michael Wilson, Mathew Maliel and
Frederick Bouckaert,
2. What is Sustainable Rivers Audit (SRA)?
• Long term, repeatable,
transparent
• Reports on themes
SRA1: fish, macros, hydrology
SRA2: + physical form, vegetation
• Surveillance monitoring and
assessment of health of
MDB’s riverine ecosystems
• Doesn’t track specific
interventions or projects
• Doesn’t identify cause of
degradation
3. The SRA partnership
1. Sampling 2. Data 3. Analysis 4. Reporting
Vic Expert advice
Technical SRA Independent
Independent
(inc external
Taskforces program Audit Group
Audit Group
NSW experts) team (ISRAG)
(ecologists)
& ACT
& in MDBA
SA Annual reporting to
Independent reports to
Inter-jurisdictional
Multi -jurisdictional TheCouncil of the
MDBA and
Working Group
Working Group MDB Ministerial
Government
Qld Council
Ministers
Australian
Australian
Government
Government Public release of of
Public release
data and audit reports
data and audit reports
4. SRA Report 1
First report on ‘status’
• Ecosystem health
assessment for all valleys -
fish, macros and hydrology
• Limited to river channels
• Sampling 2004–2007
• Report released June 2008
• Technical report (396pp)
• Summary report (70pp –
including valley report cards)
5. Where does SRA work?
• Whole of the MDB
– 23 valleys
– 1 to 4 zones per valley
• Random sampling sites
– 25% fixed, 75% new
• Reporting for Valley and
Zone but NOT sites
• SRA1 - riverine zone
• SRA2 - will include
floodplains
9. Rankings and reference
SRA assesses
condition relative to = near reference
Reference Condition condition
(no significant human
= moderate difference
intervention) from reference
• benchmark for
comparison = large difference from
• accounts for natural reference
regional and
temporal differences(dry/ = very large difference
wet) from reference
• not a management target = extreme difference
from reference
10. Ecosystem health
• Themes are combined using
expert rules to give rating for
ecosystem health
• Qualitative but repeatable
• Not a simple addition (the
indices have different
weightings)
12. Fish Theme
• 487 sites were sampled
• 60,600 fish caught (and released)
– 38 species; 28 native, 10 alien
• Many native species missing
• Aliens dominate:
– two-thirds biomass is alien
species
– in every 10 kg of fish, 6 kg is carp
– carp, gambusia, goldfish in all
rivers
NSW Fisheries
• Most fish communities in Poor, Very
Poor or Extremely Poor Condition
• Northern rivers generally better
condition than southern rivers
14. Fish Theme: valley rank
Valleys ranked by Fish Condition Index. Red lines indicate medians;
vertical bars indicate 95% confidence limits.
15. Macroinvertebrate Theme
• 209,000 animals in 124 families at 773 sites
• 23 common, tolerant families in all valleys
• 14 families at one site only
• Most communities in Poor condition
• Generally low diversity
esp. Avoca, Lower Murray, Warrego Valleys
• North-south distinction
19. Hydrology Theme
• Ecological aspects of flow regime
- volumes and temporal patterns
• Designed to show effects of resource
development, not drought (30 – 100
year record)
• Problems with data availability
– qualitative assessment - poor spatial
representation
– based on modelled data (calibrated using
gauges)
• 33% Valleys in Good Condition,
• 33% Moderate to Good
– rating for whole valley including
tributaries – not end-of-valley
23. SRA Report 2 (to be published June 2011)
• Data analysis of fish and macroinvertebrate
data 2004-2010 (six years): 2 cycles of fish
data and 3 for macroinvertebrates across all
23 valleys of the basin: condition assessments
and preliminary trend analysis
• Additional assessments on vegetation and
physical form
• Similar sampling design: random site selection
but data collected by LIDAR and RBG imagery
rather than field data
• Additional hydrology assessments
24. Vegetation assessment
• Vegetation assessment at Basin scale
(using NVIS mapping data) and at reach
scale (using LIDAR)
• Structural, not floristic
• Domains of interest:
– Near riparian (200 m channel buffer)
– Valley floor
– Valley boundary
26. Physical form assessment
• Using 19 transects at
each ‘site’
• Contouring at 25 cm
height intervals
• Automatic extraction of a
range of measurements
that will be used to derive
variables, metrics and
indicators
• Reference condition
modelled by including
human disturbance
variables, and re-setting
these to zero
27. Physical form indicators
• Channel form:
– Planform
– Channel slope
– Cross section mean width and depth
– Cross section variability of width and depth
• Bank dynamics:
– Channel bank complexity
– reach variability
• River bed dynamics
• Floodplain dynamics
28. Hydrology
• Additional assessments:
– Impacts of farm dams (unregulated areas)
– Impacts of land use change (unregulated
areas)
– Integration with impacts on regulated areas
– Using Flow Stress Ranking metrics
– ‘time slices’ analysis most recent 15 years in
3 year time slices (trend)
29. SRA and Basin plan
1. SRA information used to develop
Sustainable Diversion Limits (SDL) to
achieve Key Environmental Functions
(KEF)
2. SRA provides baseline data for
comparison against future condition
monitoring
3. SRA fulfils some key monitoring
requirements under the Water Act 2007
30. Reports and more information
• MDB Rivers: Ecosystem
Health Check 2004-2007
(summary and valley ‘report
cards’)
• SRA Report 1 – full technical
report, 396pp
Available on internet at
www.mdba.gov.au and in hard
copy from MDBA office
Contact: Dr Michael Wilson
michael.wilson@mdba.gov.au
Thank you
Murray River near Tintaldra, Vic
