au.riversinfo.org Rivers Info Australia: Australian Rivers

<P>Your Browser Seems to have trouble with frames. <P>Please follow this link. <P><a href="../contents.php?subdir=nrhp/">../contents.php?subdir=nrhp/</a> <HR> <P><A HREF="#background">NRHP Background Information</A> <h2>Publications</h2> <P>The published reports from the Urban Subprogram of the National River Health Program have been made available on au.riversinfo.org. They are: <h3>Outcomes</h3> <P><A HREF="nrhp/outcomes/" target="_top">Outcomes of the NRHP Urban Sub-Program</A> <h3>Estuaries</h3> <P><A HREF="nrhp/estuary_clasifn/" target="_top">A Physical Classification of Australian Estuaries</A> <P><A HREF="nrhp/estuary_review/" target="_top">Assessing the ecological health of estuaries in Australia</A> <P><A HREF="nrhp/estuarine_models/" target="_top">Estuarine Eutrophication Models</A> <P><A HREF="nrhp/estuarine_models_seem/" target="_top">SEEM (Simple Estuarine Eutrophication Model) User's Manual.</A> <P><A HREF="nrhp/est_assess_macro_fauna/" target="_top">Estuarine Health Assessment Using Benthic Macrofauna</A> <P><A HREF="subdir=nrhp/&filename=pristine_estuaries">Summary: Australia's near pristine estuaries - assets worth protecting</A> <h3>Decision Support System</h3> <P><A HREF="nrhp/decn_supp_syst/" target="_top">Basic Decision Support System for Management of Urban Streams Part A</A> <P><A HREF="nrhp/decn_supp_manual/" target="_top">Basic Decision Support System for Management of Urban Streams Part B Software Manual</A> <P><A HREF="nrhp/decn_supp_brisbane/" target="_top">Basic Decision Support System for Management of Urban Streams Part C Pilot Studies in Brisbane</A> <P><A HREF="nrhp/decn_supp_game/" target="_top">Basic Decision Support System for Management of Urban Streams. Part D. Demonstration Game – 'Lets Fix Urban Streams'</A> <h3>Diatoms</h3> <P><A HREF="nrhp/diatoms_indicators/" target="_top">A Guide to Diatoms as Indicators of Urban Stream Health</A> <P><A HREF="nrhp/diatom_predn/" target="_top">Diatom Prediction & Classification System for Urban Streams.</A> <h3>Macroinvertebrates & AUSRIVAS</h3> <P><A HREF="nrhp/sed_chem_macros/" target="_top">Sediment Chemistry - Macroinvertebrate Fauna Relationships in Urban Streams</A> <P><A HREF="nrhp/ausrivas/" target="_top">An evaluation of AUSRIVAS models for urban stream assessment</A> <h3>Bibliography</h3> <P>A Preliminary Bibliography from the National River Health Program is also available <P><A HREF="subdir=nrhp/&filename=NRHP_bibliography">NRHP Preliminary Bibliography</A> <a name="background"></a> <h2>NRHP Background Information</h2> <P>The NRHP was established in 1993 to improve the management of Australia's rivers and floodplains for their long-term health and ecological sustainability, through the following goals: <ol> <li>To monitor and assess the health of Australia's rivers. <li>To enhance the management of river flows, water allocation and water use to ensure the sustainability of river and floodplain ecosystems. <li>To encourage active management to improve the health of Australia's rivers, based on a sound understanding of the ecological and hydrological processes. <li>To evaluate the effectiveness of river management actions at a national scale. </ol> <P>Urban streams and estuaries (i.e. those affected by runoff and discharges from urban areas) are an important subset of Australia's waterways. Most are degraded biologically, physically and chemically and therefore require appropriate methods to be developed for health assessment and management. The Urban R&D Sub-program comprised 8 research projects which were developed to meet research priorities for urban streams and estuaries within the goals of the NRHP and to complement existing NRHP projects on non-urban rivers. Research focused on development of standardised methods for assessing the ecological health of urban streams and estuaries which can be linked with data on water and sediment quality. The urban R&D projects commenced in 1996. <P>The definition of health in urban waterways used was "the ability to support and maintain a balanced, integrative, adaptive community of organisms having a species composition, diversity and functional organisation as comparable as practicable to that of natural habitats of the region". <P>The eight projects of the Urban Sub-Program were:<br> <br> <TABLE BORDER="0" WIDTH="100%" CELLPADDING="5"> <tr valign="top"> <td>Decision support system for management of urban streams </td><td>Dr John Anderson<br>Southern Cross University, Lismore</td> </tr> <tr valign="top"> <td>RIVPACS (River InVertebrate Prediction and Classification System) for urban streams</td><td>Dr Peter Breen<br>CRC for Freshwater Ecology, Monash<br>University, Melbourne</td> </tr> <tr valign="top"> <td>DIPACS (Diatom Prediction and Classification System) for urban streams</td><td>Dr Jacob John <br>Curtin University, Perth</td> </tr> <tr valign="top"> <td>Sediment chemistry- macroinvertebrate fauna relationships in urban streams</td><td>Dr Nick O'Connor<br>Water EcoScience, Melbourne</td> </tr> <tr valign="top"> <td>Classification of estuaries</td><td>Dr Peter Saenger<br>Southern Cross University,Lismore</td> </tr> <tr valign="top"> <td>Literature review of ecological health assessment in estuaries</td><td>Mr David Deeley <br>Murdoch University, Perth</td> </tr> <tr valign="top"> <td>Estuarine health assessment using benthic macrofauna<br> </td><td>Dr Gary Poore <br>Museum of Victoria, Melbourne</td> </tr> <tr valign="top"> <td>Estuarine eutrophication models</td><td>Dr John Parslow<br>CSIRO Marine Laboratories, Hobart</td> </tr> </TABLE><BR CLEAR="ALL">