Most waterways in Western Australia are modified to some degree and waterway restoration may be required to maintain or improve their environmental, social and economic values.
The department is committed to waterway restoration by:
The Department of Water’s coordination and capacity building role includes providing advice and technical assistance to community restoration projects. This action assists various community groups to develop the skills required to undertake waterway restoration. It includes providing training packages, technical advice and best practice guidelines and notes, such as the River restoration manual, water notes and water facts and assistance with:
The program also assists community groups to collate and access water monitoring data, which is used to design and evaluate waterway restoration projects. This includes monitoring data on water quality, ecological water requirements and trends in the hydrological regime, including water levels.
Capacity building is an important way to increase knowledge, leading to appropriate agency, industry, community and individual actions to stabilise or improve the condition of waterways in Western Australia. It enables the department to be responsive to stakeholder needs, raise awareness of waterways management issues and transfer knowledge and information to enable good decision-making.
The River Restoration Manual contains a series of sections that outline the basic principles of how waterways function and provide guidelines to the rehabilitation and long-term management of waterways in Western Australia. Before ordering or down-loading the Manual, it is suggested that relevant Water Notes and Water Facts should be read.
The River Restoration Action Team (River RATs) is an information and support network for people involved in river restoration in Western Australia.