Table of Contents: Helpful Documents DirectoryAs of January 2004 au.riversinfo.org is archived under Precision Info
Table of Contents: Helpful Documents Directory
Current at June 2002
Supplied by the Southern Sydney Catchment Management Board
2001 ANZECC Guidelines:
Australian Waters Quality Guidelines for Fresh and Marine Waters, National Water Quality Management Strategy, Australian and New Zealand Environment and Conservation Council, Canberra.
Aboriginal Heritage:
includes places which show evidence of Aboriginal occupation, as well as places which are of contemporary, spiritual or mythological importance according to Aboriginal culture or custom, but which contain no physical remains.
Acid Sulfate Soils:
Acid sulphate soil is the common name given to soils containing iron sulphides or their oxidation products. They occur in low-lying coastal areas.
Aquifer or Groundwater system:
water that is held in the ground and moves slowly through pores in sediment, cracks and fractures in rocks. It interacts with the environment through intercepting the surface and forming wetlands, springs and baseline river flows.
Bed Lowering:
Is the process by which a stream is eroded to a new lower level at a much faster rate than occurs naturally. This process can cause extreme bank erosion.
Biodiversity and Habitat Values:
Because it is so difficult to measure biodiversity and habitat quality, it is often appropriate to measure a range of specific values, which can act as surrogates for total quality. These surrogates may include areas under native vegetation, length of waterways with native vegetation and species diversity of individual site in comparison to total ecosystem diversity.
Biophysical Capabilities:
Refers to the capacity of the landscape and its components to be utilised without compromising its function.
Biophysical Processes:
In this sense refers to natural processes that form the landscape such as weathering from water erosion.
Buffer Zones:
An area of vegetated land between an area of activity (for example an urban area) and a drainage line creek or river. An adequate buffer zone would be 50 meters on main rivers and 20 meters on other streams.
CANRI:
Is the acronym for the "Community Access to Natural Resources Information" database. This database brings together key environmental information from NSW Government agencies and other organisations. It can be found at http://www.canri.nsw.gov.au/
CAR:
refers to the concept that any reserve system ensures that ecosystems are conserved in a manner, which is Comprehensive, Adequate, and Representative, to ensure continuation of ecological and evolutionary processes.
Channelisation:
includes the lining or alteration of watercourses and associated loss of vegetation and other habitat capacity. Lining or alterations of the watercourse may incorporate materials such as concrete or other non-porous materials including concrete inverts or low flow pipes with grass swales, reno mattresses and gabion lining.
Culture:
pertaining to a society, its traditions, customs and way of life.
Cumulative Impact:
Cumulative impact refers to the total effect of many small impacts. As an example, uncontrolled sediment coming from one building site might not have a major impact upon waterways, but in rapidly developing areas, the sediment coming from hundreds of building sites has a significant impact on stream quality.
Decision Support System:
Decision Support Systems (DSS) the user to make fast, responsive decisions based on all the necessary information. A DSS is often a tool specifically developed to assist management decisions by simplifying the assimilation and correct interpretation of data.
Ecologically Sustainable Development:
(ESD) this concept was developed in order to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The integration of economic and environmental considerations in decision making is central to this concept.
Ecosystems (or Ecological Systems):
are collections of organisms (plants, animals, fungi and micro-organisms) and their associated non-living environment (the soil, geology, water and air) interacting as a unit.
Environmental Flows:
the amount of water (flowing) that is critical to maintain the health of aquatic ecosystems.
Environmental Values:
In this instance refers to the importance that both the scientific community and the community in general place on the environment.
Extension:
Extension refers to increasing the size or area of remnant ecosystems, within their original range.
Facilitate:
To make easier or less difficult.
Florabank guidelines: Florabank is a collaboration between Greening Australia and CSIRO funded by the Bushcare program. Florabank have produced a set of guidelines (best management practice) which cover collecting, storing and using native seed.
Formal Reserve System:
Areas reserved through Commonwealth, State or local government or private nature reserves, or areas protected through agreements with the State (such as Voluntary Conservation Agreements).
Greenfields:
Greenfield developments are large sites where houses are built on land that was formerly 'green fields' (i.e. rural land). Greenfield developments can also be categorised by new housing proposed on major land holdings that were formerly used for other purposes (e.g. industrial, commercial or extraction).
Habitat Connectivity:
Habitats that are joined together as much as possible enables fauna to freely traverse the landscape. This assists species to breed outside of their immediate family groups, maintaining genetic integrity.
Habitat Improvement:
Habitat improvement includes such activities as bush regeneration, revegetation, increasing connectivity (creation of corridors), creation of buffer zones, weeding and reintroduction of species.
Heritage:
consists of natural and moveable heritage.
Natural – encompasses natural ecosystems, geological sites, significant trees and modified landscapes and parks;
Moveable - ranges from significant everyday objects to antiques and may be a single item, a group of items or a whole collection eg. Fossils, furniture, machinery or religious ceremonial objects.
High Hazard Areas:
Where there is a known landscape limitation with a high risk of either environmental degradation or damage to the proposed works/building as a result of inappropriate land use, these areas are considered high hazard areas.
High Significance:
Significance assessment looks at factors such as ecosystem quality, size of remnants, connectivity, presence of rare species, proximity to limit of ecosystem's range and area left of an ecosystem within a region.
Hot Spots:
An area prioritised through assessment of available data.
Land Capability:
The ability of land to accept a type and intensity of use permanently, or for specified periods under specific management, without permanent damage. Land capability involves consideration of the various land resource attributes; the production to be obtained from the land; the activities or inputs required to achieve that production; the risks of damage to the land, on-site or off-site, resulting from those activities; and the inter-relations of the above.
Land Resource Attributes:
An individual lands resource constituent that includes physical, chemical and biological elements eg Soil is a land resource attribute.
Landscape Scale:
Areas of land and water that have recognisable and specifiable characteristics such as topography, social or economic characteristics. In this document they refer to the areas identified as the Sydney Harbour Catchment Management Board Area.
Land Suitability:
The potential uses of the land based upon the consideration of physical, technical and socio-economic conditions prevailing.
Landscape Limitations:
Landscape limitations are landform properties that may restrict urban or rural development. The degree of severity of landscape limitations will vary with site conditions and the proposed land use.
Local Provenance:
In this case refers to native vegetation (seed or tubestock) that is sourced from a local population. Protocols have been developed to ensure that provenance issues can be taken into account when planning and implementing revegetation projects.
Long Term Viability:
The ability of an ecosystem, ecological community, population or species to self perpetuate or perpetuate through active management.
Natural Areas:
Areas that retain significant natural vales such as landscape and biodiversity and areas that are actively managed for these values.
Natural Flows:
A surface or groundwater flow regime that resembles the pre-European condition for surface water catchments in good natural condition and aquifers with a high beneficial use.
For altered and highly altered areas, natural flow is the surface or groundwater flow regime that protects and enhances environmental condition, through management action that moves toward a healthy and sustainable catchment/aquifer (including consideration of all biophysical aspects).
Offline Sediment Structures:
Can include structures such as detention basins and gross pollutant traps that are not built within streams.
PlanFirst:
The new Planning System for NSW proposed by the Department of Urban Affairs and Planning (now Planning NSW).
Planning Instruments:
comprise Development control plans (DCPs), Local environment plans (LEPs) Regional environment plans (REPs) and State environmental planning policies (SEPPs).
Protected Zones:
Zones within the Formal Reserve System along with areas protected through Planning Instruments and Covenants.
Regional Profile:
Can be described as a snapshot of a defined area such as the Southern Sydney catchment, which encompasses aspects such as social, economic, cultural and natural values.
Rid Squad:
Regional illegal dumping squad.
Riparian Zone:
Defined as that component of land (including floodplains) adjacent to rivers and streams or other watercourses. Riparian vegetation includes emergent aquatic and semi aquatic plants as well as the over and understorey vegetation in the zone immediately adjacent to, or verging watercourses.
Salinity:
Refers to land degradation as a result of increased salt levels. Increased salt levels make it difficult for vegetation to survive and often leaves scalds on the landscape. High water tables due to land clearing are often the cause of salinity.
Scientifically Determined Adequate:
Determined adequate through specific study and research.
Significantly Degraded:
Significantly degraded refers to ecosystems that still contain most of their natural values, but are in danger of those values being lost.
Standard Assessment Procedures:
A set of criteria of measurements used across the board.
Third Order Stream:
First order streams are defined as the small intermittent and/or perennial exterior streams, which have no tributaries. Second order streams form where two first order streams join together; Third order streams form where two streams of order two join, and so on. Only one stream segment is designated the highest order number, rather than the whole parent stream. Streams with order numbers 1-3 are low order streams and are often referred to as upland or headwater streams (Strahler as cited by Gordon et al, 1994).
Turbidity:
the concentration or loading of suspended particulate and colloidal matter within the water column.
Watercourse:
A river, creek, drain, channel (artificial or natural), depression, etc. which conveys water.
Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD):
Integrating water management, water balance, water quality, water consumption and environmental objectives into urban areas. Complete urban water cycle management. The emphasis is on water usage minimisation and water recycling. WSUD is based on the principles of ESD.
Reference
Gordon, N.D., McMahon, T.A. and Finlayson, B.L., (1994), Stream Hydrology. An Introduction for Ecologists, John Wiley and Sons Pty Ltd.
Supplied by the Southern Sydney Catchment Management Board
Document Modified March 2002
Table of Contents: Helpful Documents Directory
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