Applying a bird’s eye view to environmental water planning (#93)
Andrew Sharpe
1
,
Louissa Rogers
2
,
Heather McGinness
3
,
Shane Brooks
4
,
Art Langston
3
- Victorian Environmental Water Holder, East Melbourne, VICTORIA, Australia
- North Central Catchment Management Authority, Huntly, Victoria, Australia
- Land and Water, CSIRO, Waite Campus, SA, Australia
- Ecology and Technology, Warrandyte South, Victoria, Australia
- Why did we do it?
- Environmental water planning and management has traditionally focused on identifying watering needs at individual wetlands or rivers, but many ecological processes operate at a larger spatial scale. To achieve many of our stated environmental watering objectives we need to take a broader landscape-scale approach and consider the combination of watering actions (and other interventions) that need to be co-ordinated across multiple waterways, including waterways that are not traditionally managed for environmental outcomes.
- What did we do?
- Using Royal Spoonbills as a test case, we asked what combination of wetlands need to be managed across northern Victoria to grow colonial nesting waterbird populations.
- What have we learned?
- Potential limiting factors for spoonbill populations are the number of suitable breeding sites and the availability of suitable food and shelter for juveniles. In addition, GIS analysis suggests that while northern Victoria has suitable resources for spoonbills in flood years, the quality and quantity of resources quickly diminishes in subsequent dry years. This information will help us determine the number and type of wetlands to actively manage in the first few years after large scale natural breeding events.
- Why does it matter?
- This approach has elevated the importance of management actions and waterways that may be overlooked in traditional site-based planning methods. The next challenge will be to scale up the approach to determine the combination of management actions coordinated across a range of programs and waterways to achieve outcomes for multiple species and objectives.
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