Reporting on the environmental condition of Victorian estuaries

Product Information

Deakin University was contracted by the National Land & Water Resources Audit (the Audit) to:

• Develop a draft resource condition report card for estuarine natural resources that is flexible enough to report on estuarine ecological condition with differing levels of available information, and at regional, state and national levels.

• Communicate the findings and learnings to the Audit and at a national estuarine forum.

The lack of data on and knowledge about estuaries along the Victorian coast pose considerable hurdles for identifying and assessing the state’s estuarine health. Basic descriptors of individual systems such as size, bathymetry, sediments and habitats, water residence time, salinity regimes, freshwater hydrology, and mouth closure frequency and duration are lacking for most estuaries.

This report describes a general approach for reporting on estuarine condition that aligns with both the current Victorian approach to reporting on freshwater reaches and the proposed national estuarine framework. It highlights the types of reports possible and presents examples of information that could potentially be included in inventory, risk, condition and estuary status reports.