Communities caring for catchments
Module 2 - getting started: the team, monitoring plan and site
Waterwatch Australia Steering Committee
Environment Australia, December 2002
ISBN 0 6425 4856 0
Water quality monitoring is a means of gathering information about the condition — or 'health' — of waterbodies. It consists of observations or measurements of the characteristics of the water itself, of the bed and banks of the waterbody, and also of the aquatic life and vegetation in and around the water.
Monitoring can be low-key and relatively simple — for example, taking photographs — or more ambitious. It can rely on an individual, or a whole team may get involved, taking regular measurements and samples, and arranging precise analyses of collected materials. The important thing is to monitor at defined intervals (preferably over a large number of months or years), in accordance with an agreed plan, recording the observations and results so they can be shared.
How and what you monitor depends on the issues affecting your waterbody and why you are gathering information about it. The information from your monitoring will help you describe the health of the waterway and understand changes that may occur. It can also be used to initiate action in the catchment to benefit the waterbody.
Generally, a single issue will trigger the interest of individuals and groups, but issues are often related. One way to identify issues is to ask questions about uses, values and threats. The sorts of questions you could ask are:
Questions of this sort can be discussed with the whole community and the waterbody's stakeholders - the people who are influenced by or have influence over water at this site.
Monitoring is important for a variety of reasons. For instance:
It is usually best to form a group or team to do the monitoring. The group activity promotes community involvement, to improve and protect the condition of our waterways. This is important because a waterway or waterbody is a shared resource, and there will be many people who care what happens to it.
Potential team partners include schools, Landcare or conservation groups, community groups, service clubs, industry, local businesses, State Government agencies, catchment boards, local government and interested individuals.
Through a team approach, you can spread the workload. A team has more contacts than an individual, and can more easily collect local knowledge and the oral history of the waterbody. A team can gain access to the expertise and resources of local authorities concerned with water issues by inviting them to join. Conversely, local authorities can benefit from your monitoring work and from the greater understanding spread through the community. With teamwork, the monitoring project is more likely to be kept on the schedule chosen for it and to be continued for a useful number of months or years.
Start by contacting your State Waterwatch facilitator who will put you in touch with your local or regional coordinator. They will be able to advise you on how to get started. You will have access to the expertise of Waterwatch across Australia, and assistance and guidance as well as training sessions. You will be able to link with other monitoring groups and water authorities within the catchment.
As mentioned already, the team needs a reason for monitoring. The reasons chosen are often based on the issues identified for particular waterbodies. Other reasons are given in the box on the next page.
Once you have a reason for monitoring, your team can form a specific objective — for example, to collect the information needed to achieve a set of individual goals.
So, the issues provide the reason for monitoring, and the objective then is to take the steps necessary to gain one or more goals.
In one real–life example, the Goulburn–Broken Catchment Management Authority (Victoria) called in Waterwatch to provide event monitoring after high rainfall events along the Yea River. The Authority monitored monthly to provide some information, but it was most interested in data collected after rainfall. Rain increases turbidity by washing soil, nutrients and litter into a waterway. Finding out where exactly these sediment loads come from was seen as essential in order to implement best practice management in the catchment. Here, the issue is the increased turbidity and litter in the river after rainfall, and the reason for monitoring is to find out the sources of the sediment and litter.
The goal of the monitoring is to start using best practice management, particularly in the areas supplying the river's sediment and litter loads. The team's overall objective then is to achieve certain goals, by monitoring chosen physical, chemical and biological characteristics of the water at chosen times and places, both before and after the cause has been removed.
Here is a second example of monitoring goals and objectives. Your State may have classified its rivers according to their most important uses and values, and established goals for water quality and a list of conditions needed to maintain those uses and values. For example, rivers that provide drinking water must be kept free of contaminants (it is important to note that the classifications are goals to be achieved; they do not necessarily describe present conditions). Your team's monitoring objective here might be to identify sources of contaminants that are lowering a local river's classification.
Public workshops, river walks and local history are useful sources of information from which to identify issues associated with your waterbody and define your objectives in monitoring it. In addition to telling you about the river, these activities serve to build a base of support for your plans. When all viewpoints are heard and respected, the result can be a strong sense of collaboration between partners.
Once your group knows the issues facing the waterbody or waterway, you should develop a shared vision of its future, which will be your goal.
Your reasons for monitoring will guide your answers to all other choices, so it is worth considering these carefully. By choosing your question and goals carefully you will avoid difficulties such as:
Regional Waterwatch groups may identify several complementary goals and objectives for monitoring, which match the individual needs of schools, Landcare and community groups, local government and others.
It is important that your goals and objectives are public, and that everyone involved knows what they are. This is the key to involving others and sustaining group membership.
The next step for the group is to begin preparing a monitoring plan. As you consider the questions that underlie your group's monitoring plan, you will progressively fine-tune the objectives for monitoring.