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,

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

The SRA partnership

SRA program

team in MDBA

Vic

NSW & ACT

Qld

SA Multi - jurisdictional Working Group

Technical Taskforces

Independent Audit Group (ecologists)

Annual reporting to Council of

Government Ministers

Public release of data and audit reports

Australian Government

SRA program

team

Vic

NSW & ACT

Qld

SA Inter-jurisdictional Working Group

Expert advice (inc external experts)

Independent Audit Group (ISRAG)

Independent reports to The MDBA and the MDB Ministerial Council

Public release of data and audit reports

2. Data

Australian Government

4. Reporting 1. Sampling 3. Analysis

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)

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

Data, integration and audiences

Data, integration and audiences

Data, integration and audiences

Expert rules

Rankings and reference

= near reference condition

= moderate difference from reference

= large difference from reference

= very large difference from reference

= extreme difference from reference

SRA assesses condition relative to Reference Condition (no significant human intervention) •  benchmark for comparison

•  accounts for natural regional and temporal differences(dry/wet)

•  not a management target

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)

What does Report 1 say?

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 •  Most fish communities in Poor, Very

Poor or Extremely Poor Condition •  Northern rivers generally better

condition than southern rivers

NSW Fisheries

Fish Theme: valley condition

Fish Theme: valley rank

Valleys ranked by Fish Condition Index. Red lines indicate medians; vertical bars indicate 95% confidence limits.

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

Macroinvertebrate Theme

Macroinvertebrate Theme

Macro Theme: valley rank

Valleys ranked by Macroinvertebrate Condition Index. Red lines indicate medians; vertical bars indicate 95% confidence limits.

Macroinvertebrate Theme: catch

Rank Scientific name Common name Number of sites Valleys

1 Chironominae Midges 737 23 (all)

2 Corixidae Water boatmen (bugs) 699 23 (all)

3 Leptoceridae Longhorn caddisfly 662 23 (all)

4 Tanypodinae Midges 620 23 (all)

5 Dytiscidae Predaceous diving beetles 574 23 (all)

6 Veliidae Riffle bugs; Broad-shouldered water striders 532 23 (all)

7 Notonectidae Backswimmers (bugs) 530 23 (all)

8 Oligochaeta Freshwater worms 525 23 (all)

9 Acarina Aquatic mites 522 23 (all)

10 Baetidae Mayflies 521 23 (all)

11 Orthocladiinae Midges 517 23 (all)

12 Ceratopogonidae Midges 490 23 (all)

13 Hydrophilidae Water scavenger beetles 483 23 (all)

14 Caenidae Mayflies 481 23 (all)

15 Atyidae Freshwater shrimp 415 23 (all)

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

Hydrology Theme

Valley Report Cards

Goulburn

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

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

Vegetation indicators •  Condition:

– Nativeness (NVIS) – Fragmentation (NVIS) – Structure (LIDAR) – Total cover (LIDAR)

•  Abundance and diversity: – Abundance (NVIS) – Richness (NVIS) – Evenness (NVIS) – Stability (NVIS)

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

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

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)

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

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

Murray River near Tintaldra, Vic

Thank you