Australian River Assessment System: AusRivAS Physical and Chemical Assessment Module

Principal Investigators: M. Thoms and R. Norris
Research Officers: M. Parsons and G. Ransom
Cooperative Research Centre for Freshwater Ecology
Monitoring River Health Initiative Technical Report Number 23
Environment Australia, 2002
ISSN 1447 1280
ISBN 0 642 54889 7

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2. Products

The AusRivAS Physical and Chemical Assessment Module project has produced five products. These are:

  1. AusRivAS physical assessment protocol (separate document, 173 pages).
  2. Software to report existing AusRivAS habitat data (software package and software manual).
  3. Review of physical river assessment methods (separate document, 59 pages).
  4. Habitat assessment workshop (held 2-3 May 2000, report on workshop is Appendix 1 of this final report document).
  5. Evaluation of aspects of existing river assessment methods to include in the final protocol (Appendix 2 of this final report document).

Further information on the purpose, development and content of each product is provided in the following sections.

2.1 AusRivAS Physical Assessment Protocol

As mentioned in Section 1.1, the document titled "AusRivAS Physical Assessment Protocol" details a standardised rapid method for the collection of geomorphological, physical habitat, riparian and basic water quality data. The protocol incorporates aspects of several existing physical assessment methods into a method that can be implemented to construct AusRivAS-style predictive models. The process used to evaluate existing methods as candidates for inclusion in the protocol is detailed in Sections 2.3 and 2.5. Production of the protocol document satisfies Task 4, as outlined in paragraph in Paragraph B.3 of the contract schedule.

The AusRivAS Physical Assessment Protocol was reviewed by Wayne Erskine (State Forests of NSW), Peter Davies (Freshwater Systems, Tasmania) and Leon Metzeling (VIC EPA) in January 2001. Several aspects of the protocol were modified as a result of review comments, including division of streams into functional process zones, sampling site dimensions, and collection methods and category descriptions for several variables. Additionally, the protocol was discussed at a meeting held on 7 February 2001 (Bruce Gray, Lisa Evans, Allan Thomas (EA), Melissa Parsons, Martin Thoms). Several other aspects of the protocol were modified as the result of review comments from Bruce and Lisa, and included the addition of a note about non-applicability of the protocol in estuarine environments, justification of the scales chosen for use and inclusion of notes about sampling time and training needs.

The protocol was tested in a range of large and small streams on 30-31 January 2001. Several modifications were made to the protocol and field data sheets as a result of field-testing. These modifications included reduction in the sampling site dimensions from 10x bankfull width to 500m, changes to the measurement of cross-sectional profiles and rearrangement of the field data sheets to match the order of work at a sampling site.

2.2 AusRivAS Physical and Chemical Reporting Software

As discussed in Section 1.2, the AusRivAS Physical and Chemical Reporting software utilises the existing AusRivAS data and reports the status of a test site in relation to reference sites. The Physical and Chemical Reporting software is not a tool for quantifying the physical condition of a test site, because this would require construction of predictive models. Instead, the software allows the user to flag test sites that have physical and chemical characteristics that sit outside the range of characteristics found at corresponding reference sites. These physical and chemical characteristics can then be examined alongside the AusRivAS O/E scores to provide insight into the causes of biological degradation at a test site. Production of the software and software manual satisfies Task 5, as outlined in paragraph B.3 of the contract schedule.

Data for the software component were received from each State and Territory. The types of variables included were generally those representing geographical position, riparian vegetation, stream morphology, habitat assessment, water chemistry and organic and inorganic substratum. While used extensively for building AusRivAS models, several of the variables give little information about physical stream condition (e.g. latitude, longitude, stream order) and it is anticipated that users will wish to add variables to the reference data-base. In addition, reference site data will need to be updated to coincide with any changes made to the AusRivAS predictive models. Thus, the software manual includes detailed instructions for preparing a reference site data set and the programming of the software is set up to facilitate easy insertion of new reference site information as part of routine maintenance.

2.3 Review of Physical River Assessment Methods

The review document, titled "Review of physical river assessment methods: a biological perspective" examines seven methods of stream assessment that are potential candidates for inclusion in a nationally standardised physical and chemical assessment protocol. These methods are: AusRivAS, HABSCORE, Index of Stream Condition, River Styles, State of the Rivers Survey (a.k.a River Habitat Audit Procedure), Habitat Predictive Modelling and River Habitat Survey. For each of these methods, four questions were asked and answered:

  1. How did the method come about?
  2. How does the method work?
  3. How does the method assess stream condition?
  4. How does the method link physical and chemical features with the biota?

The review document satisfies Tasks 1 and 3, as outlined in paragraph B.3 of the contract schedule. As per the email correspondence of Bruce Gray on 23 May 2000, it is recommended that a slightly modified form of this document be formally published as an EA report.

2.4 Habitat Assessment Workshop

A workshop titled "Stream Habitat Assessment: Integrating Physical and Biological Approaches" was held at the University of Canberra on May 2-3, 2000. Twenty-two leading geomorphologists, hydrologists and ecologists attended the workshop to discuss approaches that may be useful for inclusion in a nationally standardised physical stream assessment protocol. A report on the habitat assessment workshop is provided in Appendix 1. The habitat assessment workshop satisfies Task 2, as outlined in paragraph B.3 of the contract schedule.

2.5 Evaluation of Aspects of Existing River Assessment Methods to Include in the Final Protocol

Following production of the review document and completion of the habitat assessment workshop, it was necessary to decide on the desired philosophy and content of a standardised physical assessment protocol. This was done in a systematic manner using a four-step process:

  1. set desired criteria for the physical assessment protocol;
  2. evaluate existing stream assessment methods against these criteria;
  3. on the basis of this evaluation, make recommendations about the major aspects of existing stream assessment methods useful for inclusion in the physical assessment protocol; and,
  4. make final recommendations about the content and philosophy of the physical assessment protocol.

These final recommendations were then used to guide the development of the AusRivAS physical assessment protocol document. Full details of the four-step evaluation process are provided in Appendix 2. The evaluation of existing methods for inclusion into the physical assessment protocol satisfies Tasks 1 and 3, as outlined in paragraph B.3 of the contract schedule.

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