Most of the impacts on estuaries result from the land use pattern of their contributing catchments. Understanding the trend and condition of Australia’s estuaries will do much to provide a report card of the aggregate impact of our land use activities across catchments on the natural environment as well as providing a framework for more strategic estuary management.
Estuaries are the subject of systemic failure – for example, the estuary based oyster industry in NSW and southern Queensland has reduced in value in the last 3 years from $50M to $30M – most of which is related to impacts of land use.
Estuaries are key landscapes for recreational use and commercial use, with many fish and prawn species using estuaries for nursery and sometimes maturation phases of their lifecycles. Estuaries are greatly impacted upon by our growing population – with predictions that the next 5M people in Australia will virtually all live around estuaries.
Given the widespread nature of the problem, there is a need to take a national overview of the state of estuaries and identify mechanisms for restoring their health.
Project number:
1999-230
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure:
$495,000.00
Principal Investigator:
Lynne Turner
Organisation:
CSIRO Land and Water Canberra
Project start/end date:
29 Jun 2000
-
15 Jun 2005
Contact:
FRDC
1. Determine, using readily available data where possible, the state of ecological health of Australia’s estuaries
2. Bring together in an accessible and comparable format across Australia, readily available data on estuarine health, diversity, impacts and management practices
3. Develop and apply models that describe the processes driving particular estuary types and providing a specification for the nature of data to be collected on each estuary type
4. Identify management regimes required for estuary types, assess current management and recommend improved management
5. Develop a series of monitoring and assessment activities protocols that will result in high quality information on the health of Australian estuaries, informs and evaluates management, and identifies research and development priorities
6. Assist in the establishment of an Australia wide network of researchers, managers and policy makers that facilitates a greater understanding of estuarine natural resources
Author:
Lynne Turner
