The NSW Office of Water is responsible for measuring and reporting on the progress towards statewide targets for rivers and groundwater as set out in the State Plan. Progress towards statewide targets was reported in the 2009 NSW State of the Environment Report with a second report due in 2012.
Statewide targets set for 2015 are to:
- improve the condition of riverine ecosystems
- improve the ability of groundwater systems to support groundwater dependent ecosystems and designated beneficial uses.
State of the Catchment reports give us information on the condition of rivers and groundwater for 13 Catchment Management Areas across the state. Companion technical reports for specific statewide targets provide additional details the State of the Catchment reports.
Three of the technical reports on groundwater and riverine ecosystems have been produced by the NSW Office of Water:
NSW River Condition Index
The NSW River Condition Index allows the spatial reporting of long-term river health and helps integrate water allocation and catchment planning. This has been a key issue for implementation under National Water Commission's National Water Initiative. With funding from the National Water Commission, the project was first piloted in the Hunter catchment.
The NSW Office of Water led a multi-agency project to developed the spatially expressed river condition index which will be used as the basis for aligning the two types of plans. The index will also assist with reporting on state-wide targets for rivers, State Natural Resource Management Target evaluation, the Catchment Management Authority's Catchment Action Plan evaluation and review, as well as water sharing plan evaluation and development.
The NSW River Condition Index allows the spatial reporting of long-term river health. Other spatial products developed as part of the project will enable the spatial representation of instream value, as well as the risk to instream value (resilience) from both physical disturbance and water extraction.
This innovative approach will provide a consistent riverine condition assessment methodology incorporating fish, macroinvertebrates, physical form, riparian vegetation and hydrological disturbance into a single measure based on the National Framework for Assessing River and Wetland Health.
River Styles framework
The River Styles® framework is integral to the River Condition Index as it forms the physical form component of the index and is extensively used to identify, interpret and map river types throughout the state.
Water sharing plan and catchment action plan alignment is achieved by using the spatial products to guide investment and decision-making in both types of plans. For example, an area identified as having very high instream value may be subject to water trading rules within a water sharing plan that allow transfer of entitlement out of the section, and also be an area where a Catchment Management Authority invests in aquatic conservation.
The National Water Commission has recently published the results of the Hunter pilot in the Waterlines report on its website at Alignment of water planning and catchment planning.
This work has also recently been published in the Journal of Applied Geography:
Brierley, G., Fryirs, G., Cook, N., Outhet, D., Raine, A., Parson, l., & Healey, M., (in Press) Geomorphology in action: Linking policy with on-the-ground actions through applications of the River Style Framework. Journal of Applied Geography 31 (2011) pp 1132 -1143.
The Office of Water is now rolling out the River Condition Index across the remainder of NSW.
Groundwater monitoring
The Office of Water continues to monitor and expand its groundwater level monitoring network in priority areas where there is active groundwater use. This enables the office to effectively monitor the influence of groundwater use and ensure that appropriate management actions are implemented when required in order to mitigate an adverse impact. These activities are improving the current knowledge on groundwater dependent ecosystems, as well as the relationship between surface and groundwater resources.
The Office is currently conducting analysis of remote sensing and complementary data sets to develop a state map of groundwater dependent terrestrial vegetation. This will identify the location of groundwater dependent terrestrial vegetation, guide future investigations, and ensure these areas are protected through water sharing plans.
The Office is currently completing various National Water Commission funded projects that are improving the level of knowledge on the influence of groundwater extraction on groundwater quality, the interaction between gaining and losing streams and the identification of groundwater dependent ecosystems in coastal sands aquifers adn the impact risk assessment of groundwater extraction in these systems.
Catchment health indicators
In 2008 the former Department of Water and Energy (now the NSW Office of Water) developed and published catchment health indicators (PDF 34 KB) for the Sydney drinking water catchment area.
The Sydney Catchment Authority, in consultation with other stakeholders, produced the report, Development of Catchment Health - indicators for the drinking water catchments - Sydney, the Illawarra, Blue Mountains, Southern Highlands and Shoalhaven (December 2009) (PDF 167 KB). The report lists catchment health indicators, outlines the process for indicator selection, summarises the recommended methodology for data collection and identifies the agencies responsible for collecting indicator data.
Riparian vegetation extent monitoring
The Office of Water has developed a standardised riparian vegetation extent layer for NSW rivers and streams with funding provided by Catchment Action NSW. This layer has been derived from existing NSW statewide woody vegetation layer and a newly developed stream order layer.
The spatial layer will be useful for all Catchment Management Authorities who have a riparian vegetation target in their Catchment Action Plans. It provides for the first time a consistent measure of riparian vegetation across all the following catchment management areas of NSW.
Monitoring farm dams
Farm dams are the lifeline of most farming businesses as they provide a supply of water essential for irrigation and other farming activities. They can be used to capture surface runoff, intercept watercourses, or hold surface water or groundwater that is pumped into them. In NSW, farm dams can be constructed legally if the relevant statutory requirements are complied with. However, farm dams can reduce the availability of water for other users in the catchment and for the environment.
Mapping of farm dams can provide data valuable for checking compliance with statutory requirements and for environmental assessment purposes.
The Office of Water has been trialling different remote sensing techniques to determine their suitability for mapping farm dams. The results of a trial in the Parkes and Braidwood areas can be downloaded from the link below:
An increased use of remote sensing techniques and GIS analysis will enable the Office of Water to more accurately assess illegal capture of water, have a better understanding of the level of compliance of farm dams, and effectively target areas where illegal activities are having the greatest impact on the availability of water.
The results of the trial can also be applied to assessment of availability of water in catchments, and for other environmental purposes.
For more information about farm dams go to the Department of Primary Industries website
More information on the use of dams for harvesting runoff can be found under Water licensing > Basic water rights > Harvesting runoff