Hastings and Camden Haven Rivers Ecohealth Project: Assessment of River and Estuarine Condition 2011

The development of a standardised means of collecting, analysing and presenting riverine, coastal and estuarine assessments of ecological condition has been identified as a key need for coastal Catchment Management Authorities and Local Councils who are required to monitor natural resource condition, and water quality and quantity in these systems. This project was conducted over a 12 month period in the Hastings Camden-Haven region covering 14 river systems to contribute to the assessment of the ecological condition of the catchment. The project aimed to

• assess the health of coastal catchments using standardised indicators and reporting for estuaries, and freshwater river reaches using hydrology, water quality, riparian vegetation and habitat quality, and macroinvertebrates assemblages as indicators of ecosystem health in streams of the Hastings Camden-Haven region,
• contribute scientific information to the development of a report card system for communicating the health of the estuarine and freshwater systems in the Hastings Camden-Haven region.