Evaluation and redirection of a long-term, broad-scale river health monitoring program in Tasmania, Australia

Since 1994, to support sustainable river management the Tasmanian State Government has conducted broadscale monitoring of river condition across Tasmania under the River Health Monitoring Program (RHMP). The RHMP employs Australian River Assessment System (AusRivAS) protocols, which focus on macroinvertebrate communities and habitat quality. Since the RHMP began, land and water use has changed markedly and river health science has advanced. Therefore, information collected by the RHMP between 1994 and 2016 was reviewed to: (1) document its history; (2) assess applications of resulting data and the applicability of other measures of river condition; (3) evaluate the value of its abiotic and biotic data; (4) examine spatio-temporal patterns in macroinvertebrate communities and river condition; and (5) revise its purpose and design.

To date, outputs from the RHMP have been used for a range of purposes relating to the management of natural resources (especially water), and suggest there have been declines in river condition in several areas of Tasmania since 1994. The review identified several limitations in the RHMP, which have been addressed by increasing the breadth and rigour of monitored parameters. In addition, monitoring sites have been adjusted to target landscapes where land and water use are reasonably intense.