Abstract
Despite the demonstrated utility of the Australian River Assessment Scheme (AUSRIVAS) to provide national-scale information on the biological condition of rivers, there is no commensurate scheme that can provide standardised information on physical habitat. Existing habitat assessment methods are not suitable for implementation on a national scale, so we present a new habitat assessment protocol that incorporates favorable elements of existing methods. Habitat Predictive Modelling forms the basis for the protocol because it can predict the occurrence of local-scale features from large-scale data, uses the reference condition concept, can be modified to incorporate a range of biologically and geomorphologically relevant variables, and employs a rapid survey approach. However, the protocol has been augmented with geomorphological variables and incorporates principles of hierarchy and geomorphological river zonation. There are four sequential components to the implementation of the protocol: reference site selection, data collection, predictive model construction and assessment of test sites using the predictive models. Once implemented, the habitat assessment protocol will provide a standardised tool for the assessment of river habitat condition at a variety of governance levels.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anderson, J. R.: 1993a, State of the Rivers Project. Report 1. Development and Validation of the Methodology, Department of Primary Industries, Queensland, Australia.
Anderson, J. R.: 1993b, State of the Rivers: Maroochy River and Tributary Streams, Report to Maroochy Shire Council and Queensland Department of Primary Industries, Queensland, Australia.
Anderson, J. R.: 1999, Basic Decision Support System for Management of Urban Streams, Report A: Development of the Classification System for Urban Streams, Land and Water Resources Research and Development Corporation, Canberra, Australia, Occasional Paper 8/99.
Barbour, M. T., Gerritsen, J., Snyder, B. D. and Stribling, J. B.: 1999, Rapid Bioassessment Protocols for use in Streams and Wadeable Rivers: Periphyton, Benthic Macroinvertebrates and Fish, EPA 841-B-99-002, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Water, Washington.
Boer, de, D. H.: 1992, ‘Hierarchies and spatial scale in process geomorphology: A review’, Geomorphology 4, 303–318.
Brierley, G., Fryirs, K. and Cohen, T.: 1996, Development of a Generic Geomorphic Framework to Assess Catchment Character, Part 1: A Geomorphic Approach to Catchment Characterisation, Working Paper 9603, Graduate School of the Environment, Macquarie University, Australia.
Brierley, G. J., Cohen, T., Fryirs, K. and Brooks, A.: 1999, ‘Post-european changes to the fluvial geomorphology of Bega Catchment, Australia: Implications for river ecology’, Freshw. Biol. 41, 839–848.
Brierley, G. J. and Fryirs, K.: 2000, ‘River styles, a geomorphic approach to catchment characterization: Implications for river rehabilitation in Bega Catchment, New South Wales, Australia’,Environ. Manage. 25, 661–679.
Chessman, B.: 2002, Assessing the Conservation Value and Health of New South Wales Rivers: The PBH (Pressure-Biota-Habitat) Project, NSW Department of Land and Water Conservation, Sydney, Australia.
Davies, N. M., Norris, R. H. and Thoms, M. C.: 2000, ‘Prediction and assessment of local stream habitat features using large-scale catchment characteristics’, Freshw. Biol. 45, 343–369.
Davies, P. E.: 2000, ‘Development of a National River Bioassessment System (AUSRIVAS) in Australia’, in J. F. Wright, D. W. Sutcliffe and M. T. Furse (eds), Assessing the Biological Quality of Fresh Waters: RIVPACS and Other Techniques, Freshwater Biological Association, Ambleside, U.K., pp. 113–124.
Evans, L. J. and Norris, R. H.: 1997, ‘Prediction of benthic macroinvertebrate composition using microhabitat characteristics derived from stereo photography’, Freshw. Biol. 37, 621–634.
Frissell, C. A., Liss, W. J., Warren, C. E. and Hurley, M. D.: 1986, ‘A hierarchical framework for stream habitat classification: Viewing streams in a watershed context’, Environ. Manage. 10, 199–214.
Fryirs, K. and Brierley, G.: 2000, ‘A geomorphic approach to the identification of river recovery potential’, Phys. Geogr. 21, 244–277.
Giller, P. S. and Malmqvist, B.: 1998, The Biology of Streams and Rivers, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Harper, D., Smith, C., Barham, P. and Howell, R.: 1995, ‘The Ecological Basis of the Management of the Natural River Environment’, in D. M. Harper and A. J. D. Ferguson (eds), The Ecological Basis for River Management, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, pp. 219–238.
Harper, D. and Everard, M.: 1998, ‘Why should the habitat-level approach underpin holistic river survey and management?’, Aquat. Conserv. 8, 395–413.
Hawkins, C. P., Norris, R. H., Hogue, J. N. and Feminella, J.W.: 2000, ‘Development and evaluation of predictive models for measuring the biological integrity of streams’, Ecol. Appl. 10, 1456–1477.
Hughes, R. M.: 1995, ‘Defining Acceptable Biological Status by Comparing with Reference Conditions’, in W. S. Davis and T. P. Simon (eds), Biological Assessment and Criteria: Tools for Water Resource Planning and Decision Making, Lewis Publishers, Boca Raton, pp. 31–47.
Humphrey, C. L., Storey, A. W. and Thurtell, L.: 2000, ‘AUSRIVAS: Operator Sample Processing Errors and Temporal Variability–Implications for Model Sensitivity’, in J. F. Wright, D. W. Sutcliffe and M. T. Furse (eds), Assessing the Biological Quality of Fresh Waters: RIVPACS and Other Techniques, Freshwater Biological Association, Ambleside, U.K. pp. 143–163.
Jeffers, J. N. R.: 1998, ‘Characterization of river habitats and prediction of habitat features using ordination techniques’, Aquat. Conserv. 8, 529–540.
Knighton, D.: 1984, Fluvial Forms and Processes, Edward Arnold, London.
Ladson, A. R. and White, L. J.: 1999, An Index of Stream Condition: Reference Manual, Department of Natural Resources and Environment, Melbourne, Australia.
Ladson, A. R., White, L. J., Doolan, J. A., Finlayson, B. L., Hart, B. T., Lake, P. S. and Tilleard, J. W.: 1999, ‘Development and testing of an index of stream condition for waterway management in Australia’, Freshw. Biol. 41, 453–468.
Maddock, I.: 1999, ‘The importance of physical habitat assessment for evaluating river health’,Freshw. Biol. 41, 373–391.
Marchant, R., Hirst, A., Norris, R. and Metzeling, L.: 1999, ‘Classification of macroinvertebrate communities across drainage basins in Victoria: Consequences of sampling on a broad spatial scale for predictive modeling’, Freshw. Biol. 41, 253–268.
McMillan, P. H.: 1998, An Integrated Habitat Assessment System (IAHS v2) for the Rapid Biological Assessment of Rivers and Streams, Water Resources Management Programme, Research project ENV-P-I-98132, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), South Africa.
Montgomery, D. R.: 1999, ‘Process domains and the river continuum’, J. Amer. Water Resour. Assoc. 35, 397–410.
Norris, R. H. and Thoms, M. C.: 1999, ‘What is river health?’, Freshw. Biol. 41, 197–209.
Norris, R. H. and Hawkins, C. P.: 2000, ‘Monitoring river health’, Hydrobiologia 35, 5–17.
Norris, R. H., Prosser, I., Young, B., Liston, P., Bauer, N., Davies, N., Dyer, F., Linke, S. and Thoms, M. C.: 2001, The Assessment of River Condition (ARC): An Audit of the Ecological Condition of Australian Rivers, National Land and Water Resources Audit, Canberra, Australia.
Parsons, M., Thoms, M. C. and Norris, R. H.: 2003, ‘Scales of macroinvertebrate distribution in relation to the hierarchical organisation of river systems’, J. N. Amer. Benthol. Soc. 22, 105–122.
Parsons, M. and Norris, R. H.: 1996, ‘The effect of habitat-specific sampling on biological assessment of water quality using a predictive model’, Freshw. Biol. 36, 419–436.
Parsons, M., Thoms, M. C. and Norris, R. H.: 2001, AUSRIVAS Physical Assessment Protocol, Cooperative Research Centre for Freshwater Ecology, University of Canberra, Australia. Available from http://www.ea.gov.au/water/rivers/nrhp/protocol-1/index.html/.
Raven, P. J., Holmes, N. T. H., Dawson, F. H. and Everard, M.: 1998, ‘Quality assessment using river habitat survey data’, Aquat. Conserv. 8, 477–499.
Resh, V. H. and Jackson, J. K.: 1993, ‘Rapid Assessment Approaches to Biomonitoring Using Benthic Macroinvertebrates’, in D. M. Rosenberg and V. H. Resh (eds), Freshwater Biomonitoring and Benthic Macroinvertebrates, Chapman and Hall, New York, pp. 195–233.
Reynoldson, T. B., Norris, R. H., Resh, V. H., Day, K. E. and Rosenberg, D. M.: 1997, ‘The reference condition: A comparison of multimetric and multivariate approaches to assess water-quality impairment using benthic macroinvertebrates’, J. N. Amer. Benthol. Soc. 16, 833–852.
Reynoldson, T. B., Day, K. E. and Pascoe, T.: 2000, ‘The Development of the BEAST: A Predictive Approach for Assessing Sediment Quality in the North American Great Lakes’, in J. F. Wright, D. W. Sutcliffe and M. T. Furse (eds),’ Assessing the Biological Quality of Fresh Waters: RIVPACS and Other Techniques, Freshwater Biological Association, Ambleside, U.K., pp. 165–180.
Reynoldson, T. B. and Wright, J. F.: 2000, ‘The Reference Condition: Problems and Solutions’, in J. F. Wright, D. W. Sutcliffe and M. T. Furse (eds), Assessing the Biological Quality of Fresh Waters: RIVPACS and Other Techniques, Freshwater Biological Association, Ambleside, U.K., pp. 293–303.
Rosenberg, D. M., Reynoldson, T. B. and Resh, V. H.: 2000, ‘Establishing Reference Conditions in the Fraser River Catchment, British Columbia, Canada, Using the BEAST (BEnthic Assessment of SedimenT) Predictive Model’, in J. F. Wright, D.W. Sutcliffe and M. T. Furse (eds), Assessing the Biological Quality of Fresh Waters: RIVPACS and Other Techniques, Freshwater Biological Association, Ambleside, U.K., pp. 181–194.
Schumm, S. A.: 1977, The Fluvial System, John Wiley & Sons, New York.
Schumm, S. A.: 1988, ‘Variability of the Fluvial System in Space and Time’, in T. Rosswall, R. G. Woodmansee and P. G. Risser (eds), Scales and Global Change, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, pp. 225–250.
Schumm, S. A. and Lichty, R.W.: 1965, ‘Time, space and causality in geomorphology’, Amer. J. Sci. 263, 110–119.
Simpson, J. C. and Norris, R. H.: 2000, ‘Biological Assessment of River Quality: Development of AUSRIVAS Models and Outputs’, in J. F. Wright, D. W. Sutcliffe and M. T. Furse (eds), Assessing the Biological Quality of Fresh Waters: RIVPACS and Other Techniques, Freshwater Biological Association, Ambleside, U.K., pp. 125–142.
Smith, M. J., Kay, W. R., Edward, D. H. D., Papas, P. J., Richardson, K. S., Simpson, J. C., Pinder, A. M., Cale, D. J., Horwitz, P. H. J., Davis, J. A., Yung, F. H., Norris, R. H. and Halse, S.A.: 1999, ‘AusRivAS: Using macroinvertebrates to assess ecological condition of rivers in Western Australia’ Freshw. Biol. 41, 269–282.
Southwood, T. R. E.: 1977, ‘Habitat, the templet for ecological strategies?’, J. Anim. Ecol. 46, 337–365.
Thoms, M. C. and Sheldon, F.: 2002, ‘An ecosystem approach for determining environmental water allocations in Australian dryland river systems: The role of geomorphology’, Geomorphology 47, 153–168.
Thomson, J. R., Taylor, M. P., Fryirs, K. A. and Brierley, G. J.: 2001, ‘A geomorphological framework for river characterisation and habitat assessment’, Aquat. Conserv. 11, 373–389.
Townsend, C. R. and Hildrew, A. G.: 1994, ‘Species traits in relation to a habitat templet for river systems’, Freshw. Biol. 31, 265–275.
Turak, E., Flack, L. K., Norris, R. H., Simpson, J. and Waddell, N.: 1999, ‘Assessment of river condition at a large spatial scale using predictive models’, Freshw. Biol. 41, 283–298.
Wright, J. F.: 2000, ‘An Introduction to RIVPACS’, in J. F. Wright, D. W. Sutcliffe and M. T. Furse (eds), Assessing the Biological Quality of Fresh Waters: RIVPACS and Other Techniques, Freshwater Biological Association, Ambleside, U.K., pp. 1–24.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Parsons, M., Thoms, M.C. & Norris, R.H. Development of a Standardised Approach to River Habitat Assessment in Australia. Environ Monit Assess 98, 109–130 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:EMAS.0000038182.03176.97
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:EMAS.0000038182.03176.97