Results of the National Water Commission’s Framework for Assessment of River and
Wetland Health for
This page provides a summary of the results of the National Framework for the Assessment of River and Wetland Health (FARWH) for South Gippsland water management area.
Table 1 Results of the National Framework for the Assessment of River and Wetland Health (FARWH) for South Gippsland water management area
|
Biota
|
0.72 |
The Biota Index provides a measure of the biological health of rivers using data on aquatic macroinvertebrates as assessed by the Index of Stream Condition. |
|
Catchment Disturbance |
0.63 |
The Catchment Disturbance Index provides a measure of human land-use changes that impact the river and wetland condition and the biota.
The catchment disturbance for Victoria were generated using the methods developed in the National Land and Water Resources Audit 2001. |
|
Hydrology Disturbance |
0.78 |
The Hydrological Disturbance Index assesses the flow regimes change that result from river regulation and/or substantial flow diversion or extraction.
For Victoria the Hydrology condition of rivers is based on Flow, Stress, Ranking (FSR). |
|
Physical Form |
0.37 |
Physical Form was assessed for Victorian water management areas based on the Index of Stream Condition methods and includes stream bank and bed condition, presence of, and access to, physical habitat. |
|
Water Quality |
|
Insufficient water quality data were available to report on for this water management area. |
|
Fringing Zone |
0.4 |
The Fringing Zone Index uses the Streamside Zone data from the Victorian Index of Stream Condition including quantity and quality of streamside vegetation, and condition of billabongs. |
|
Overall Score |
0.5 |
The Overall Index for a Surface Water Management area is a combination of the individual indices (Biota, Fringing Zone, Hydrological Disturbance, Physical Form and Water Quality) to assess the overall health of the river.
For Victoria the indices are integrated at reaches using inverse ranking and weighted by reach length, then aggregated to give the overall score for the Surface Water Management Area. |
|
Figure 1 Results of the National Framework for the Assessment of River and Wetland Health (FARWH) for South Gippsland water management areaNote: The ranges associated with the graph are described below.
|
| 0.0-0.2 | severely modified |
| 0.2-0.4 | substantially modified |
| 0.4-0.6 | moderately modified |
| 0.6-0.8 | slightly modified |
| 0.8-1.0 | largely unmodified |
See the National Framework for the Assessment of River and Wetland Health (FARWH) report on the
Publications page for details on the assessment method.