Draft Estuarine, Coastal and Marine Indicators for the National Monitoring and Evaluation Framework
The Tasmanian Estuarine, Coastal and Marine indicators are works in progress. As the documents evolve new versions will be updated to this website.
Please note: some documents are first drafts and are currently being reviewed. The content will be updated in the coming months.
Background
The National Natural Resource Management (NRM) Monitoring and Evaluation Framework, agreed by NRM Ministerial Council in 2002, sets out that NRM regions will have to report on funded activities (eg habitat restoration, fencing, revegetation, etc) as well as the degree to which these have made a difference to natural resource condition (eg water quality, extent of vegetation types, spread of invasive species). ‘Estuarine, Coastal and Marine Habitat Integrity’ is one of ten matters for target identified in the Framework for which regions should set monitoring targets (if relevant).
Through an earlier project, the Coastal CRC was commissioned by the Australian Government to identify indicators for coasts and estuaries. The CRC’s report, the Users' Guide for Estuarine, Coastal and Marine Indicators for Regional NRM Monitoring* identifies some 32 indicators for this matter for target together with relevant detailed background information for each indicator.
The Tasmanian Coastal Estuarine and Marine Indicators Working Group has recommended a suite of indicators that will meet NRM reporting requirements in Tasmania and contribute towards developing a nationally agreed approach.
The Tasmanian Compendium
Each indicator is available to download as a separate PDF or word document file.
Portable Document Format (PDF) files require the use of Adobe Acrobat Reader. The Reader is easy to download and is free of charge.
Physical-chemical condition
- 1. Dissolved oxygen
- 2. pH
- 3. Salinity
- 4. Shoreline position
- 5. Total nutrients in the water column
- 6. Toxicants: sediments, water column, biota
- 7. Turbidity / water clarity
- 8. Water temperature
Biological condition
- 9. Animal or plant species abundance
- 10. Presence / extent of litter
- 11. Mass mortality events (ex Animal kills)
- 12. Algal blooms
- 13. Chlorophyll a
- 14. Pest species (number, density, distribution) (inter/subtidal)
- 15. Targeted pathogen counts
Habitat Extent
- 16a. Extent/distribution of key habitat types (subtidal)
- 16b. Extent/distribution of key habitat types (inter/supratidal)
Acknowledgements: Tasmanian Indicators Working Group (Chris Rees, Eloise Carr, Greg Dowson, Ian Houshold, Stewart Blackhall, Stephen Harris, Stephen Gallagher, Tania Raymond, Rosemary Gales, Alice Morris, Alasdair Wells and Colin Shepherd, DPIWE; Nicole Middleton, Tasmanian Coastcare Facilitator; Christine Crawford, Vanessa Lucieer and Alastair Hirst, TAFI; Stephen Waight and Fiona Wells, SoE Unit; John Harkin and Chris Cleary, Monitoring and Evaluation, NRM Tasmania; Ed Butler and Peter A. Thompson, CSIRO; Derek Shields, Aquenal; John Hunter, Werner Hennecke and Richard Mount, UTAS; Brian Leahy, Tasmanian Shellfish Executive Council; Brian Smith, Queen Victoria Museum; Ray Murphy, RPDC; Christian Bell, MCCN; Christine Coughanowr and Ruth Eriksen, Derwent Estuary Program. Apologies to those missed from this list.
The Tasmanian Indicators Compendium, including the Tasmanian Extensions, was produced through the “Trialing resource condition indicator for the coastal zone” project run by Richard Mount, UTAS with funding support by the NLWRA (Rob Thorman) and other forms of assistance by many others, particularly Eloise Carr, Fiona Wells and Nicole Middleton.
Trialing NRM Resource Condition Indicators in the Coastal Zone - Final Report, May 2006.
*Scheltinga, D.M., R. Counihan, A. Moss, M. Cox and J. Bennett, 2004. Users’ Guide to Estuarine, Coastal and Marine Indicators for Regional NRM Monitoring. Report to DEH, MEWG, ICAG Revised version, December 2004, p.198.
The Coastal CRC Indicators Users’ Guide provides both the context and the required methods for selecting and applying the Indicators, including the identification of environmental issues and stressors. The Guide is available from: www.coastal.crc.org.au/Publications/indicators 
.
The individual NRM Indicator documents are available from the Australian Government Natural Resource Management website: www.nrm.gov.au/monitoring/indicators/index.html .
Further Information
Contact: Project Officer - Coastal
Coastal and Marine Branch
6th Floor, Lands Building, 134 Macquarie Street
GPO Box 1751
Hobart TAS 7001
Phone: 03 6233 3963
Fax: 03 6233 6800
Email: Coastal.Enquiries@environment.tas.gov.au
