Water use across a catchment and effects on estuarine health

Water use in a catchment can greatly impact on coastal and marine ecosystems. Tasmania’s Little Swanport estuary serves as the nursery grounds for the Pacific oyster industry.

This project will identify the links between freshwater inflows to the estuary and the productivity of the oyster industry and compare economic benefits of freshwater flows to estuarine industries with catchment activities that are reliant on these flows.

Expected project completion date: December 2008

Outcomes

1. To complete an investigation of environmental flow regimes required to maintain the health and production of oysters from the Little Swanport estuary through continued collection of environmental data under different flows and by the development of an estuarine model to predict the effects of different flow regimes
2. To develop a set of economic accounts and an economic water evaluation framework and associated tools, using the Little Swanport catchment as a case study, to assess the value of freshwater to the various users across the catchment, including upstream agriculture, estuarine shellfish farmers and fishers and for non-market goods and services

Publications and Resources

None listed

Citation

Land & Water Australia. 2009. Water use across a catchment and effects on estuarine health. [Online] (Updated June 16th, 2009)
Available at: http://lwa.gov.au/node/3218 [Accessed Tuesday 26th of April 2011 04:38:28 PM ].