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Catchment assessment techniques to help determine priorities in river restoration

The intent is for the assessment techniques described to provide an improved rational basis for setting stream rehabilitation priorities. Focus catchments were chosen that had issues aligned with those in the project objectives. Two existing assessment techniques; SedNet (Prosser et al., 2001) and RARC (Jansen et al., 2004a), were selected to be developed for regional scale priority setting, based on the project team’s expertise with these techniques. These techniques were (more)...

  • Publication
  • Final Report
  • 2005
  • Product code PN30292
  • National Program for Sustainable Irrigation
  • Read More and Download

SIGNAL scoring system for river bio-assessment by community groups

SIGNAL stands for ‘Stream Invertebrate Grade Number – Average Level.’ It is a simple scoring system for macro-invertebrate (‘water bug’) samples from Australian rivers. A SIGNAL score gives an indication of water quality in the river from which the sample was collected. Rivers with high SIGNAL scores are likely to have low levels of salinity, turbidity and nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus. They (more)...

  • Publication
  • Final Report
  • 2001
  • Product code PN30291
  • National Program for Sustainable Irrigation
  • Read More and Download

Improving the legislative basis for river management in Australia

The report reviews developments to April 2001 in Australian water resource law and in stakeholders’ experiences. It analyses legislation through eight ‘indicatory topics’ and through questionnaires, interviews and workshops, in four voluntarily-participating States: South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia. It proposes a Model Legislative Framework to guide development of water resource law in moving towards sustainable rivers. It calls for a catchment agency to manage (more)...

  • Publication
  • Final Report
  • 2001
  • Product code PN30264
  • National Program for Sustainable Irrigation
  • Read More and Download

Australia’s Tropical Rivers Data Collation Project

In response to the need to better understand Australia’s tropical river systems, this project aimed collating available datasets relating to Australia’s Tropical Rivers; and to then produce a set of relevant information suitable for upload to the Australian Natural Resources Atlas.

  • Project
  • National Program for Sustainable Irrigation
  • Read more

Influence of the Camballin Barrage on Fish Communities in the Fitzroy River, Western Australia

The Barrage on the Fitzroy River presents a considerable barrier to fish migrations in this ecologically, culturally and socially important system.

  • Project
  • National Program for Sustainable Irrigation
  • Read more

Fishes of the King Edward and Carson Rivers

with their Belaa and Ngarinyin names

The results of this study have revealed that the number of freshwater fishes (species diversity) of the King Edward River is higher than has previously been recorded for a Western Australian river. Twenty-six freshwater fish species were recorded, which is three species higher than the much larger Fitzroy River in the southern Kimberley. The study also resulted in a number of range extensions, including Butler’s Grunter and Silver Cobbler to the west, and the Slender Gudgeon to the north and east. (more)...

  • Publication
  • Final Report
  • 2006
  • Product code PN30227
  • National Program for Sustainable Irrigation
  • Read More and Download

Indigenous Interests in Tropical Rivers: Research & Management Issues

of the Scoping Study for Land & Water Australia’s Tropical Rivers Program

The report was requested by Land and Water Australia (LWA) as a scoping study to provide information for their new Tropical Rivers Program.

  • Publication
  • General Information
  • 2009
  • Product code PN30226
  • National Program for Sustainable Irrigation
  • Read More and Download

Water regime dependence of fish in the wet-dry tropics

This project has improved understanding of the potential ecological impacts of changes in dry season flow regimes of tropical river ecosystems caused by water resources development in these catchments. The project investigated variation in fish distribution and ecological requirements across a natural flow regime gradient using field sites, and document indigenous knowledge on fish in the Daly River. This information has been used to develop models, based on BBNs, to predict the impact of different (more)...

  • Publication
  • Final Report
  • 2009
  • Product code PN30216
  • National Program for Sustainable Irrigation
  • Read More and Download

Environmental Water Allocation required to sustain macroinvertebrate species in ephemeral streams

Project Objectives: To determine the key drought refuges used by macroinvertebrate species in intermittently-flowing streams and determine the level of threat to each refuge posed by prolonged drying and unpredictable flow regimes To determine the role played by different types of drought refuge in restocking macroinvertebrate populations in rivers and therefore the consequences for river communities of loss of each type of drought refuge. To determine the (more)...

  • Publication
  • Final Report
  • 2009
  • Product code PN30215
  • National Program for Sustainable Irrigation
  • Read More and Download

Water allocation to River Murray wetlands: a basin-wide modeling approach

The primary aim of this project was to relate the water regime preferences of wetland plants to hydrology throughout the Murray River Basin and to predict the volume of additional water required to achieve optimal plant species diversity. This report details the methods and key findings of the project which examined the impact of regulation and changes in water allocation on the community composition of wetland plants through the Murray River basin. Due to a lack of primary data, it deals (more)...

  • Publication
  • Final Report
  • 2008
  • Product code PN30167
  • National Program for Sustainable Irrigation
  • Read More and Download

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