What we Do

The Living Murray environmental monitoring

We monitor The Living Murray (TLM) environmental sites to ensure that the ecological objectives that apply to them are being successfully met.

Our monitoring process supports the adaptive management of TLM sites — we use new data and other information, including local knowledge, to help us be more responsive to the changing needs of the Basin's environment.

Wetland monitoring, Shepparton, Victoria. Photo
by Arthur Mostead

As a result, our planning for environmental water delivery and works and measures is more in harmony with what is actually happening at the sites rather than what happened at them in the past. Adaptive management also helps us manage for any potential risk — for example, we can deliver water to a site to ensure enough water remains in the area to support a waterbird breeding season.

The Living Murray monitoring focuses on fish, birds and vegetation, which provide a good indication of the overall ecological health of the icon sites

Different environmental monitoring activities

River Murray System-scale monitoring determines whether the health of the River Murray System improves following TLM implementation.
Environmental site condition monitoring determines changes at the icon site scale following the delivery of water and the implementation of the works programs under TLM.
Intervention monitoring quantifies relationships between the cause (watering and other interventions) and the effects (ecological response) at the icon site scale.
Compliance monitoring determines whether works and watering regimes have been carried out as agreed.
Knowledge generation identifies and addresses knowledge gaps and informs risk management actions.