Assessing

Waterway and foreshore condition assessments

Waterway degradation, particularly in the south-west, in Western Australia is widespread. Foreshore condition assessments allow the local community, supported by government agencies and other professionals, to make the most effective use of resources towards river protection by providing information on the state or condition of the foreshore area of a waterway. These assessments allow the most degraded foreshore areas can be targeted for urgent rehabilitation.

Volunteers can be trained to recognise degrees of foreshore degradation and record their assessment of foreshore condition on standardised forms, which ensure consistency in the method used. The resulting data can be gathered together to produce a record of foreshore condition over large areas. This provides baseline data on which to base long term monitoring and management.

Pen and Scott (1995) developed a foreshore condition assessment system for farming areas in south-west Australia and this methodology is summarised in chapter 3 of the River Restoration Manual. The foreshore condition assessment system considers elements such as vegetation health, presence of weeds, livestock access and fencing status, potential for erosion, and bank steepness.

Advice on how to assess waterway condition is available from the following resources;

• from the River Restoration Manual
• from our Water Notes series
• from our Water Facts series
• from our Monitoring and assessing waterways health page
• from our Understanding our river and estuaries page
• from our Threats and risks to waterways page
• from our Animals, plants and algae page

Advice about the condition of particular waterways and catchments is available from the following resources;

• the Water resource management series provides details of waterway and foreshore conditon assessments
• the River restoration and recovery plan series details plans for the restoration of particular waterways
• Management plans for particular waterways are also available

State Assets Report

There are many important natural resource assets across Western Australia. However, not all are in need of investment in management to protect them against threats. The State Assets Report is a compilation of the work by various state agencies to identify natural resource management assets and threatening processes. It aims to help separate important assets that are under a high level of threat, and potentially in need of additional investment, from those assets that are under a lower level of threat. The five asset classes that are assessed in the report include:

• fish habitats and species (including aquatic assets and fish resources)
• coastal and marine
• agricultural land
• water resources (including waterscapes and water supply assets)
• biodiversity.

The term 'asset' indicates an item of value. 'Threat' indicates the predicted severity and urgency of the impact of various processes e.g. eutrophication, erosion, weed invasion, habitat fragmentation etc) on the asset, resulting in a loss of asset value. High importance assets are those assets that have both a high value and high threat. However, important assets do not represent a final priority listing for investment of resources, but represent a starting point for further investigations and discussions on a final investment decision.

The State Assets Report will be a key resource for implementation of policy and strategy for natural resource management in Western Australia.