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Monitoring Victoria's waters

Victoria's water environment is monitored in a variety of ways by a range of organisations. This page provides an overview of the monitoring programs that exist in Victoria and links to the Victorian Water Resources Data Warehouse, where much of this information can be accessed.

Monitoring Victoria's freshwater environment

Since the completion of the 1996 Review of Environmental Water Quality Monitoring in Victoria, the Victorian Catchment Management Council, in partnership with the Department of Sustainability and Environment and EPA, has improved environmental water quality assessment in Victoria. An integrated, coordinated and resource efficient approach to water quality monitoring has been implemented by:

  • removal of duplication between monitoring programs
  • Statewide coordination of methodologies
  • a change to annual reporting to provide interpretation and management information at both a Statewide and catchment management authority scale, and
  • provision of a Statewide database of water quality information on the internet.

All water quality information for Victoria's rivers, streams, lakes and water storages is incorporated into the Statewide network, with data accessible in raw and summary form online via the Victorian Water Resources Data Warehouse.

Yarra Watch

In response to community interest in recreational water quality in the Yarra River, the Minister for Environment and Water announced the introduction of Yarra Watch in April 2005.

Yarra Watch is an EPA Victoria program providing internet access to recreational water quality monitoring information for the Yarra River. Yarra Watch is not a forecasting system as current scientific knowledge cannot predict bacterial water quality in the complex setting of a large catchment that ranges from a highly urbanised to rural environment.

Melbourne Water collects weekly E.coli samples at 14 sites from the Docklands to the upper reaches of the river at Millgrove near Warburton. Yarra Watch divides the river into three sections - lower, middle and upper - and provides individual information for sites in each section.

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Monitoring Victoria's marine environment

In the marine environment, EPA monitors 14 fixed sites in our three major embayments (Port Phillip Bay, Western Port Bay, and Gippsland Lakes). In this program EPA measures nutrient status, oxygen conditions and water clarity.

If found in high levels these features can have a negative effect on marine systems. For example excess nutrients in the Gippsland Lakes have lead to significant algal blooms.

The analysis of data focuses on trends over time and assessing the ecological condition of Victoria's embayments. Past EPA results can be found in EPA Publication 806, Port Phillip Bay Water Quality. Long-term Trends in Nutrient Status and Clarity 1984–1999 (Adobe PDF file, 4029KB).

EPA runs a program all summer monitoring the water quality of 36 beaches in Port Phillip Bay. It's called Beach Report and gives up-to-date information on water quality from December to March.

From time to time, visitors to surf beaches along the coast of Victoria notice patches of brown discoloration along the shore line. Although oil may occasionally be washed up on our beaches, this discoloration may be due to natural accumulations of large numbers of microscopic plants called diatoms.

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Victoria's water resources data warehouse

Information about water quality can now be found on the internet via the Victorian Water Resources Data Warehouse, a site dedicated to disseminating up to date information about Victoria's water resources.

EPA is one of the organisations involved in submitting data from freshwater monitoring programs to the Data Warehouse. In 2003 EPA will be working to provide the Warehouse with data from its marine programs.

The Victoria Water Resources Data Warehouse website provides access to both raw and summary data for water quality throughout Victoria. It is also a central repository for published documents produced from this data.

The data is sourced from the following programs:

In 2002 stream flow information for around 270 current and 700 historical sites from the Victorian Water Quantity Monitoring Network was added to the Data Warehouse. Also in progress are projects to deliver data from additional monitoring programs in 2003 and 2004, including:

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Information for students

Water focused information for students is available.

EPA water publications

EPA's Publications Catalogue include many publications related to the water environment.

Resources

  • Information for industry - View information on what industry can do to help protect the water environment.
  • Savewater.com - The Savewater website, provides detailed information about water conservation.
  • Waterwatch Victoria - Find out about Waterwatch, a national community water quality monitoring program.
  • Melbourne Water - Melbourne Water provides information about water conservation.

Biodiversity management information

For information regarding biodiversity management issues in rivers, streams and wetlands visit the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) website.

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