Community Water Monitoring
Monitoring water quality provides valuable info
rmation about the state of our natural resources and how they are changing over time.
QMDC’s Water Quality Officers are working with landholders to put water quality practices into place, and increase our understanding about water quality and river health.
Community river monitoring
QMDC Water Quality Officers are working with community groups, Catchment Management Associations and government agencies to develop monitoring programs. These programs rely heavily on community volunteers to better identify the condition and trend of catchment water quality and river health. QMDC provides support to these volunteers through technical advice and training in monitoring, as well as assistance in data management and interpretation. A community monitoring manual has also been developed and is available through QMDC.
SWAMP
The Stanthorpe Water Assessment and Monitoring Project (SWAMP) is an excellent example of community monitoring in action. The project is a partnership between local landholders and 12 organisations, including Granite Borders Landcare, Stanthorpe Shire Council and QMDC, and aims to collect long-term water quality data for the Stanthorpe area.
Water quality modelling
Scientists from the Department of Natural Resources and Water have developed computer models to estimate stream sediment and nutrient exports from different parts of the Queensland Murray-Darling Basin. QMDC is using one of these models to estimate the future impact of funded activities across the region.
These models will also help to identify parts of the catchment where activities would be most beneficial.
Community river monitoring (above) will be combined with existing data to validate and improve these models.