Reef Water Quality Protection Plan Research Articles

Herbicide Fate and Transport in the Great Barrier Reef: A Review of Critical Parameters

Herbicides used for weed management on agricultural land in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef catchments are a key concern for its ecosystem, including the lagoon’s marine plants and corals, whose productivity has been found to decline. The most reliable way to assess herbicide risk is by monitoring a site regularly, but this is costly and time-consuming, so numerical simulations and computer models are an alternative method. Despite the availability of low-cost and less labor-intensive modelling methods, they have been limited in their effectiveness due to a lack of specific herbicide usage data and an inadequate understanding of the breakdown and transport processes of herbicides after application. This paper reviews current findings regarding herbicide risk in all Great Barrier Reef catchments according to their agricultural land use, and the most recent Reef Water Quality Protection Plan recommendations. The various pathways for fate and transport of the herbicides were also examined, and a list of critical parameters was developed to help with computer simulations. The accuracy and reliability of modelling can be improved by including aerial drifts, interceptions by crop residues, mechanisms within the root zone, and subsurface and groundwater contributions to the herbicide load in the GBR lagoon. Moreover, the findings will provide new directions for management practices adoption data with the fate and transport model from paddock to reef and improve the reliability of model results.

Combining contemporary and long-term erosion rates to target erosion hot-spots in the Great Barrier Reef, Australia

Abstract Methods for prioritising catchment remediation are based on understanding the source of sediment over the short-medium timescales (10–10 2 years) using techniques such as sediment finger-printing, sediment flux monitoring, and catchment modelling. Because such approaches do not necessarily quantify the natural variation in sediment flux over the longer timescale, they often represent background or pre-agricultural erosion rates poorly. This study compares long-term (∼100 to >10,000 years) erosion rates derived from terrestrial cosmogenic nuclides ( 10 Be) with contemporary erosion rates obtained by monitoring sediment fluxes over #11×10#10 years. The ratio of these two data sets provides a measure of the accelerated erosion factor (AEF), which can be used to identify erosion hot-spots at the sub-catchment scale. The study area is the Burdekin catchment, the largest source of contemporary sediment to the Great Barrier Reef lagoon. Long-term erosion rates vary from −1 in the Suttor and Belyando sub-catchments to 0.0296 mm yr −1 in the Bowen. The contemporary erosion rates are highest on small hillslopes with patchy ground cover (0.2726 mm yr −1 ) and in the Bowen sub-catchment (0.2207 mm yr −1 ), and lowest in the Belyando sub-catchment (0.0019 mm yr −1 ). All but two of the sub-catchment sites have an AEF > 1.0, indicating higher contemporary erosion rates than estimated long-term averages. Results confirm that the contemporary or agriculturally-induced erosion rates at these sites have increased considerably. Within the context of the Reef Water Quality Protection Plan, these results provide justification for water quality targets to be set at the sub-catchment scale, particularly for large and geomorphically diverse catchments.

Automating Online Reef Report Cards – Linking Land Management Practices to Water Quality and Coral Reef Ecosystem Health

This paper describes an online information management system (AORRA) that we are developing for the Great Barrier Reef Foundation (GBRF), in collaboration with State and Federal agencies in Australia, to automate the production and online publication of annual Reef Plan Report Cards. The Reef Water Quality Protection Plan is a collaborative program designed to improve the quality of water in the Great Barrier Reef through improved land management practices in reef catchments. The Reef Plan sets ambitious but achievable targets for water quality and land management improvements, and identifies actions to improve the quality of water entering the reef. The success of the plan is measured through Paddock to Reef and Marine Monitoring Programs and annual Reef Plan Report Cards that integrate information and report on land management practices, catchment indicators, water quality loads and the health of the Great Barrier Reef. This paper describes the technical challenges we faced in developing AORRA (Automated Online Reef Reporting Application) – including the integration of heterogeneous monitoring datasets, the derivation of meaningful indicators and the generation of report card products that data about complex spatio-temporal environmental processes to a non-technical audience.

Agri-political Organizations in Environmental Governance: Representing Farmer Interests in Regional Partnerships

Investigations of agri-environmental programmes and their implementation often overlook the contribution of agri-political organizations (APOs). They focus instead upon the experiences of individual farmers, or the potential of farmers to be environmental stewards, the strategies or particular policy instruments employed by governments, or the workings of cooperative planning committees at river basin scales. Over the last decade in Australia, the influence and involvement of APOs in initiatives such as regional natural resource planning and the implementation of water quality policies has increased markedly but has remained largely under-researched. This paper indicates the ways these groups are becoming more embedded in the politics and operation of environmental governance and outlines the new and contested roles these groups are now playing in Australian rural landscapes. Using the case of the ongoing implementation of the Reef Water Quality Protection Plan, the paper explores tensions in the current arrangements and considers implications for ongoing participation of the farming sector in environmental governance. These tensions revolve around challenges to APOs’ traditional dialogic practices; interest-based models of representation; and their capacity to align with and operate within new territorial spaces of policy implementation, such as regions.

A Paddock to reef monitoring and modelling framework for the Great Barrier Reef: Paddock and catchment component

Targets for improvements in water quality entering the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) have been set through the Reef Water Quality Protection Plan (Reef Plan). To measure and report on progress towards the targets set a program has been established that combines monitoring and modelling at paddock through to catchment and reef scales; the Paddock to Reef Integrated Monitoring, Modelling and Reporting Program (Paddock to Reef Program). This program aims to provide evidence of links between land management activities, water quality and reef health. Five lines of evidence are used: the effectiveness of management practices to improve water quality; the prevalence of management practice adoption and change in catchment indicators; long-term monitoring of catchment water quality; paddock & catchment modelling to provide a relative assessment of progress towards meeting targets; and finally marine monitoring of GBR water quality and reef ecosystem health. This paper outlines the first four lines of evidence.

New Regionalism and Planning for Water Quality Improvement in the Great Barrier Reef, Australia

AbstractNew regionalism encompasses a diversity of approaches to address regional planning problems. Within Australia, the Great Barrier Reef Water Quality Protection Plan was developed to enhance water quality within the World Heritage‐listed Great Barrier Reef, and the plan gave responsibility to regional, natural resource management bodies to undertake several actions. This paper evaluates these initiatives in the light of the emerging theory of new regionalism and highlights six main lessons: up‐scaling of the catchment approach to a reef‐wide approach is essential in order to improve water quality, but must be complemented by cross‐regional collaboration; new governance and institutional arrangements and strengthened partnerships must be effectively integrated; culture and history are important in determining the most effective management approaches; pilot projects must move to comprehensive and strategic implementation; science is important but needs to incorporate other branches of knowledge; and economic incentives are important in encouraging the implementation of best practices, but delivery needs to be flexible. We conclude that the new regional approach is appropriate for addressing complex, multi‐scale problems such as water quality, and has incorporated several key principles of new regionalism, but that the process must move quickly to a higher level of commitment and application.

Water policy impact assessment – combining modelling techniques in the Great Barrier Reef region

The Reef Water Quality Protection Plan (Reef Plan) defined a landmark for policy in the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) region. It identifies actions, mechanisms and partnerships and builds on existing government policies, industry and community initiatives for the purpose of “halting and reversing the decline in water quality entering the Reef within 10 years” through “reducing the load of pollutants from diffuse sources in the water entering the Reef”. A range of different indicators proposed for the nine strategies of the plan define policy goals that require an integrated assessment of the Great Barrier Reef region. In this context and under given uncertainties in regard to policy outcomes, decision support systems can help simulate the impact of potential policy options. Policy options involving water quantity and water quality questions and the underlying context of land use require an understanding of environmental, economic and social consequences. This paper presents an approach developed for the GBR region, which employs a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model and an agent-based model (ABM) for integrated policy impact assessment. This applied modelling approach shows that strengths of different modelling techniques can be combined to support water policy decision making more effectively. This paper is focused on integration in the form of policy process and research response regarding model design on two system scales that provide cross scale decision support.

Assessment of the Water Quality and Ecosystem Health of the Great Barrier Reef (Australia): Conceptual Models

Run-off containing increased concentrations of sediment, nutrients, and pesticides from land-based anthropogenic activities is a significant influence on water quality and the ecologic conditions of nearshore areas of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area, Australia. The potential and actual impacts of increased pollutant concentrations range from bioaccumulation of contaminants and decreased photosynthetic capacity to major shifts in community structure and health of mangrove, coral reef, and seagrass ecosystems. A detailed conceptual model underpins and illustrates the links between the main anthropogenic pressures or threats (dry-land cattle grazing and intensive sugar cane cropping) and the production of key contaminants or stressors of Great Barrier Reef water quality. The conceptual model also includes longer-term threats to Great Barrier Reef water quality and ecosystem health, such as global climate change, that will potentially confound direct model interrelationships. The model recognises that system-specific attributes, such as monsoonal wind direction, rainfall intensity, and flood plume residence times, will act as system filters to modify the effects of any water-quality system stressor. The model also summarises key ecosystem responses in ecosystem health that can be monitored through indicators at catchment, riverine, and marine scales. Selected indicators include riverine and marine water quality, inshore coral reef and seagrass status, and biota pollutant burdens. These indicators have been adopted as components of a long-term monitoring program to enable assessment of the effectiveness of change in catchment-management practices in improving Great Barrier Reef (and adjacent catchment) water quality under the Queensland and Australian Governments' Reef Water Quality Protection Plan.

Great News for the Great Barrier Reef: Tully River Water Quality

A prerequisite for meaningful environmental legislation is that it be based upon an adequate scientific understanding of the natural system to which it is applied. In 2003, the Australian Commonwealth and Queensland State governments introduced a Reef Water Quality Protection Plan, which aimed to “improve” water quality in river catchments adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) and in nearby coastal waters. The Plan was introduced in the absence of any substantive evidence for regional degradation of GBR water quality. This paper reviews the available data regarding nutrient contents in the Tully River, north Queensland, which is cited as the best (available) evidence for human-related changes in nutrient export from (GBR) catchments [1]. It is shown that the claim of human-related nutrient enrichment in the Tully River, and regionally, is without substance. No detectable trends in GBR water quality have occurred since systematic measurements were first started in the 1980s. Environmental policies that are based on mischievous claims of chimerical damage to the Great Barrier Reef damage the reputation of science as a tool for disinterested analysis, and provoke widespread cynicism in the community regarding the integrity of contemporary environmental politics.

Phosphorus Fertility Assessment of Intensively Farmed Areas of Catchments Draining to the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area; 1: Soil Phosphorus Status

Australia's reef water quality protection plan has a key objective: “reduce the load of pollutants from diffuse sources in the water entering the Reef.” This article reports on a survey to assess the contemporary phosphorus (P) status of fertilized cropping soils across 21 catchments in coastal Queensland, Australia. The survey focused on surface soils from cane farms, vegetable and subtropical/tropical fruit tree sites. There were sampling depth effects on P levels in sugar and fruit tree sites (lower with depth). Importantly, 84% of 105 sugarcane sites were excessively fertile and only 3% rated low (P deficient). Some 75% of 16 vegetable sites and 38% of 8 fruit tree sites had excess ratings for extractable soil P fertility. Highest total P levels (0–10 cm) occurred in fruit tree sites, followed by vegetable and sugarcane soils. There are regional differences in P soil fertility, and the recycling of mill by‐products needs attention. Part 2 (Bloesch and Rayment 2006) examines the potential of these soils to release soluble P in a nutrient‐sensitive area.

SMART Water Quality Targets for Great Barrier Reef Catchments

The Australian and Queensland Governments released the Reef Water Quality Protection Plan (RWQPP) in 2003 with the objective of ‘halting and reversing the decline in water quality entering the (Great Barrier) Reef within 10 years’. One of the Plan's objectives is to reduce the load of pollutants from diffuse sources in the water entering the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). The Plan commits the regional Natural Resource Management bodies to set water quality targets for the GBR catchments' rivers. Just what the targets should be, and how they might be prepared, is not made clear. This article argues for SMART targets, explicitly determined from achievable management practices set within an adaptive approach. The article briefly reviews the theoretical foundations for managing diffuse water pollution and concludes that targeting inputs or land management practices is the best approach. Water quality targets can be derived effectively from defined adoption rates of practices with known impacts on water quality and resultant loads. The article presents a working example of how this can be applied. This approach has potential wider application than in GBR catchments.

SMART Water Quality Targets for Great Barrier Reef Catchments

The Australian and Queensland Governments released the Reef Water Quality Protection Plan (RWQPP) in 2003 with the objective of ‘halting and reversing the decline in water quality entering the (Great Barrier) Reef within 10 years’. One of the Plan's objectives is to reduce the load of pollutants from diffuse sources in the water entering the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). The Plan commits the regional Natural Resource Management bodies to set water quality targets for the GBR catchments' rivers. Just what the targets should be, and how they might be prepared, is not made clear. This article argues for SMART targets, explicitly determined from achievable management practices set within an adaptive approach. The article briefly reviews the theoretical foundations for managing diffuse water pollution and concludes that targeting inputs or land management practices is the best approach. Water quality targets can be derived effectively from defined adoption rates of practices with known impacts on water quality and resultant loads. The article presents a working example of how this can be applied. This approach has potential wider application than in GBR catchments.

INTEGRATED MODELLING OF WATER POLICY SCENARIOS IN THE GREAT BARRIER REEF REGION

The Reef Water Quality Protection Plan defined a landmark in the political discussion on water use in the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) region. In order to develop a decision support tool that integrates market values and non-market values we combine Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) modelling with multi-attribute utility theory (MAUT) to integrate socio-economic, ecological and hydrological aspects of water use. In two scenarios the applied modelling approach of this paper is explained.

A multi-criteria approach to Great Barrier Reef catchment (Queensland, Australia) diffuse-source pollution problem

This paper presents a multi-criteria based tool for assessing the relative impact of diffuse-source pollution to the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) from the river basins draining into the GBR lagoon. The assessment integrates biophysical and ecological data of water quality and pollutant concentrations with socio-economic information pertaining to non-point source pollution and (potential) pollutant impact. The tool generates scores for each river basin against four criteria, thus profiling the basins and enabling prioritization of management alternatives between and within basins. The results support policy development for pollution control through community participation, scientific data integration and expert knowledge contributed by people from across the catchment. The results specifically provided support for the Reef Water Quality Protection Plan, released in October 2003. The aim of the plan is to provide a framework for reducing discharge of sediment, nutrient and other diffuse-source loads and (potential) impact of that discharge and for prioritising management actions both between and within river basins.

Adaptive management and its role in managing Great Barrier Reef water quality

Adaptive management is the pathway to effective conservation, use and management of Australia’s coastal catchments and waterways. While the concepts of adaptive management are not new, applications involving both assessment and management responses are indeed limited at the national and regional scales. This paper outlines the components of a systematic framework for linking scientific knowledge, existing tools, planning approaches and participatory processes to achieve healthy regional partnerships between community, industry, government agencies and science providers to overcome institutional barriers and uncoordinated monitoring. The framework developed by the Coastal CRC ( www.coastal.crc.org.au/amf/amf_index.htm) is hierarchical in the way it displays information to allow associated frameworks to be integrated, and represents a construct in which processes, information, decision tools and outcomes are brought together in a structured and transparent way for adaptive catchment and coastal management. This paper proposes how an adaptive management approach could be used to benefit the implementation of the Reef Water Quality Protection Plan (RWQPP).