Water Quality Improvement Plan
Overview
A collection of resources and documents relating to the Eastern Cape Water Quality Improvement Plan.
Data and Resources
Eastern Cape York Water Quality Improvement Plan - Appendix 12: Environmental-economic values of marine and coastal natural assets
pdfPlanning Document 2.34 MBThe importance of the natural environment can be expresssed in terms of its values: ecologoical, socio-cultural, and economic. Assigning monetary value to goods and services provided by ecosystems can be a great way ensure that the environment is carefully considered during regional planning processes.
This appendix offers an economic assessment of the environment on the east coast of the Cape York Peninsula.
Eastern Cape York Water Quality Improvement Plan - Appendix 11: Adoption and economic implications of grazing management practice changes
pdfPlanning Document 3.13 MBThis appendix provides a practical and economic assessment of various natural resource management methods developed to improve grazing practices on the Cape. The appendix includes an outline of the current practices by land owners and pastoralists, case studies of cattle properties where the owners have implemented land management practices to improve the overall land condition, and reccomendations to increase the rate of adoption of land management techniques that reduce pollutant run off by land managers of all sorts.
Eastern Cape York Water Quality Improvement Plan - Appendix 10: Risk assessment of degraded water quality to ecosystems
pdfPlanning Document 2.62 MBThis risk assessment was developed to help gain scientifically accurate information regarding the land-based pollutants which pose the biggest threat to coral reefs and sea grass beds in the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). The three most significant pollutants found in the Great Barrier Reef are suspended sediments from erosion, excess nutrients, and pesticides from agricultural practices along the eastern Cape York Peninsula. This risk assessment provides substantial information which allows effective prioritisation of management practices for sources of pollutionalong the eastern coast of the Cape.
The risk of degraded water quality within the basins of the Cape York region was detemined by combining information on the ecological risk of an influx of low quality water to a region of sea grass meadows or coral reef ecosystems in the GBR lagoon with information on the end-of-catchment pollutant loads.
Eastern Cape York Water Quality Improvement Plan - Appendix 9: Water quality guidelines for fresh and estuarine waters of Eastern Cape York
pdfPlanning Document 2.86 MBUnder the Eastern Cape York Water Quality Improvement Plan one of the intended outcomes was to produce a set of guidelines that addresses Aquatic Ecosystem Protection for both the fresh and estuarine surface water bodies of the region. This Appendix (Appendix 9) addresses the need for those guidelines.
Eastern Cape York Water Quality Improvement Plan - Appendix 8: Sediment and nutrient load report
pdfPlanning Document 2.44 MBThis is the eighth appendice for the Eastern Cape York Water Quality Improvement Plan and offers an emperical load estimates for the nutrient and sediment levels of three major east flowing rivers, the Normanby, Annan, and Pascoe.
These estimates are used to measure the amount of sediment and nutrients flowing into the Great Barrier Reef lagoon from different river systems as well as monitoring change over time, showing the effectiveness of implemented land management practices.
Eastern Cape York Water Quality Improvement Plan - Appendix 6: Cape York Peninsula marine water quality synthesis
pdfPlanning Document 4.25 MBThis is the sixth of sixteen appendices for the Eastern Cape York Water Quality Improvement Plan and presents a synthesis of the overall water quality of the Great Barrier Reef lagoon through the analysis of datasets pertaining to nutrient levels, chlorophyll-a and suspended sediment that were recorded during the AIMS Long-Term Monitoring Water Quality Programme.
Eastern Cape York Water Quality Improvement Plan - Appendix 5: Coastal and marine water quality guidelines
pdfPlanning Document 465.36 KBThis appendix presents the vast majority of technical information for the Eastern Cape York Water Quality Improvement Plan such as the suspended sediment, nutrient, and pollution levels of each region, climatic conditions and so on.
Eastern Cape York Water Quality Plan - Appendix 4: Need for a "super gauge" approach for accurate monitoring of suspended sediment and nutrient loads
pdfPlanning Document 3.87 MBThe fourth appendice of the Eastern Cape York Water Quality Improvement Plan looks at why a new approach to the monitoring of suspended sediment and nutrient levels should be developed and utilised in order to accuratelty model the quality of water entering the Great Barrier Reef lagoon. The appendix looks at the tecnhicalities associated with installing and maintaining multiple super guage sites across eastern Cape York.
Eastern Cape York Water Quality Improvement Plan - Appendix 3: Land use change for Cape York NRM region
pdfPlanning Document 1.42 MBAppendix 3 for the Eastern Cape York Water Quality Improvement Plan provides information on historical land use changes on the Cape York Peninsula that have caused a direct impact to the quality of water entering and in the Great Barrier Reef lagoon. The predominate changes in land use have been in the fields of pastoralism, agriculture, mining and forestry and thus this appendice focuses on them.
Eastern Cape York Water Quality Improvement Plan - Appendix 2: Framework for gully management prioritisation in the Normanby Catchment
pdfPlanning Document 5.54 MBThe second appendice of the Eastern Cape York Water Quality Improvement Plan offers a framework for the prioritisation of management for sub catchments and alluvial gullies in the Normanby Catchment based on rate of errosion and sediment levels.