What to monitor
There are three main aspects of waterways that can be monitored—physico-chemical, biological, and stream conditon and habitat properties. Each has a number of indicators that are useful for indicating the health of your waterways.
The indicators you choose will depend on the purpose of your monitoring and your issues of concern. Information to help with planning your monitoring, identifying your objectives, and methods of monitoring, is available from How to monitor.
Indicators commonly monitored by community-based groups include:
- dissolved oxygen
- electrical conductivity
- flow
- nitrogen
- phosphorous
- pH
- turbidity
- water temperature
- macroinvertebrates numbers and diversity
- fish diversity
Stream condition and habitat indicators
- riparian vegetation disturbance
- stream habitat
- stream bed and bank stability
More detailed information is available from the Queensland community waterway monitoring manual, Chapter 4 (Designing your study).
Last updated 19 February 2008
