Australian River Assessment System: AusRivAS Physical Assessment Protocol

Melissa Parsons, Martin Thoms and Richard Norris
Cooperative Research Centre for Freshwater Ecology
University of Canberra
Monitoring River Health Initiative Technical Report Number 22
Environment Australia, 2002
ISSN 1447-1280
ISBN 0 642 54888 9


Acknowledgments

This document draws heavily on published stream assessment methods currently in use in Australia and overseas. Thus, we would like to acknowledge the authors of these methods because this document is somewhat a summary of their expertise. These authors are:

River Habitat Audit Procedure
John Anderson

Index of Stream Condition
Tony Ladson, Lindsay White, CRC for Catchment Hydrology and Department of Natural Resources and Environment, Victoria.

River Styles
Gary Brierley, Kirstie Fryirs, Tim Cohen and others at Macquarie University

Habitat Predictive Modelling
Nerida Davies, Martin Thoms, Richard Norris

River Habitat Survey
P. Raven, N. Holmes, F. Dawson, P. Fox, M. Everard, I. Fozzard, K. Rouen and others at the UK Environment Agency and Scottish Environment Protection Agency

AusRivAS
All involved with the AusRivAS component of the National River Health program at both a State and Federal level. Particular thanks to members of the current AusRivAS team at the CRCFE in Canberra for help with the construction of this document: Julie Coysh, Phil Sloane, Sue Nichols, Nerida Davies and Gail Ransom.

USEPA Habitat Assessment
James Plafkin, Mike Barbour, Kimberley Porter, Sharon Gross, Robert Hughes, Jeroen Gerritson, Blaine Snyder, James Stribling

Participants in the Habitat Assessment Workshop also provided ideas for the development of this protocol. These people are:

John Anderson, Rebecca Bartley, Andrew Boulton, Gary Brierley, Nerida Davies, Jenny Davis, Barbara Downes, Fiona Dyer, Wayne Erskine, Judy Faulks, Brian Finlayson, Kirstie Fryirs, Chris Gippell, Bruce Gray, Kathryn Jerie, Tony Ladson, Richard Marchant, Leon Metzeling, Richard Norris, Melissa Parsons, Mike Stewardson, Mark Taylor, Jim Thompson, Martin Thoms, Simon Townsend and John Whittington.

John Foster, Heather McGinness, Vic Hughes, Andrew Pinner and Fiona Dyer of the River and Floodplain Laboratory, University of Canberra, provided advice on several of the variables included in this protocol, and also provided many photographs. Desley Ferguson and Melanie Saxinger provided administrative support.