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Program Overview 2011

The Ecosystem Health Monitoring Program (EHMP) is one of the most comprehensive freshwater, estuarine and marine monitoring programs in Australia. The EHMP delivers a regional assessment of the ambient ecosystem health for each of South East Queensland’s (SEQ) 19 major catchments, 18 river estuaries and nine zones in Moreton Bay.

Healthy Waterways manages the program on behalf of our member organisations, and it is delivered by a large team of experts from the Queensland Government, universities and CSIRO.

 

Report Card grades — what do they mean?

For over 10 years, the EHMP has produced an annual Ecosystem Health Report Card to highlight whether the health of our waterways is improving or declining. Ecosystem health is assessed against water quality guidelines, resulting in a single grade for each freshwater, estuarine and marine system.

A total of 389 sites are monitored across SEQ and Moreton Bay: 135 freshwater sites are monitored biannually, and 254 estuarine and marine sites are monitored monthly.

The 2011 Report Card grades (‘A’ to ‘F’) are based on analysis of data collected from July 2010 to June 2011.

A Excellent: Conditions meet all set ecosystem health values. All key processes are functional and all critical habitats are in near pristine condition.
B Good: Conditions meet all set ecosystem health values in most of the reporting region. Most key processes are functional and most critical habitats are intact.
C  Fair: Conditions meet some of the set ecosystem health values in most of the reporting region. Some key processes are functional and some critical habitats are impacted.
D Poor: Conditions meet few set ecosystem health values in most of the reporting region. Many key processes are not functional and many critical habitats are impacted.
F Fail: Conditions do not meet set ecosystem health values. Most key processes are not functional and most critical habitats are severely impacted.

            

Indicators used for assessing ecosystem health

Freshwater

Five ecological indicator groups are measured:
  • physical chemical
  • nutrient cycling
  • ecosystem processes
  • aquatic macroinvertebrates
  • fish.

Estuarine and marine

Ecological Health Index indicators measured are:
  • algae (phytoplankton)
  • Lyngbya
  • secchi depth (water clarity)
  • total phosphorus
  • total nitrogen
  • sewage nitrogen signal
  • turbidity
  • dissolved oxygen.
 Biological Health Rating indicators measured are:
  • seagrass
  • coral
  • nutrient processing
  • sewage nitrogen signal
  • riparian condition.

For more information, please refer to the 2011 Report Card Methods on our website www.healthywaterways.org.

Most regions in South East Queensland (SEQ) experienced higher than average rainfall from July 2010 through to March 2011.  Intense rainfall during December and January, especially in the northern and western catchments, led to the largest regional flood event since 1974.  Events of this magnitude are a feature of SEQ’s sub-tropical climate.

In general, rainfall is highly variable across the region, throughout the year and from year to year, although higher rainfall usually falls along the coastal zone. Rainfall is influenced both by tropical systems from the north and fluctuations in the high pressure ridge to the south. In a typical year, the minimum rainfall usually occurs during the winter/ spring period, with September the driest month and higher rainfall usually occurring during the warm humid summer period with February the wettest month.