South East Queensland is home to a number of waterways and catchments. Healthy Land and Water monitors these catchments for the annual Report Card and other research data.
What is the Report Card?
The Healthy Land and Water Report Card provides an annual assessment of the environmental condition of South East Queensland catchments, bays and broadwaters.
The Report Card also measures the social and economic benefits that waterways provide to local communities and management action to achieve reduced pollutant loads, improved water quality, restored key habitats and fish populations.
- The Environmental Condition Grade is calculated through a number of indicators; freshwater, estuarine water quality, habitat and pollutants. Indicators are assessed against established guidelines and benchmarks, resulting in a single grade for each catchment or bay zone. The data used to calculate the grade is an integration of modelling and field monitoring.
- The Social and Economic Benefits Rating helps us to better understand how social and economic values will be affected by changing environmental conditions. We collect data on the attitudes and behaviours that underpin SEQ resident’s expectations and actions towards using and valuing local waterways through surveys and economic assessments.
- Actions describe the barriers and drivers for individuals and groups helping to protect and improve waterways; also how and where management actions should be applied, and their impact on waterway health.
Our program objective:
“Enhancing community quality of life by fostering stewardship to protect and restore waterway health.”
We want to:
- Restore and maintain key habitats
- Reduce pollutant loads entering waterways
- Improve and maintain water quality
- Restore and maintain key ecosystem processes
- Restore and maintain resilient and healthy aquatic communities
Build resilience
We work hard with our stakeholders to protect our region against severe weather events such as large rainfall, floods and droughts. A resilient region will recover faster, reducing the risk of damage to infrastructures such as roads, bridges, farmland and houses and key habitats.
A healthy environment for all
We believe all living creatures deserve a healthy and thriving environment to live in and enjoy. Clean waterways mean that fish and other aquatic communities will thrive making SEQ waterways more enjoyable places to exercise, recreate or relax in.
Economic benefits
Caring for nature will reward us with an abundance of food. Healthy and accessible waterways help fish communities thrive, and by maintaining sustainable fishing practices, we can continue to enjoy Moreton Bay’s delicious bugs and fish.
Keep drinking water costs low
It takes a lot of energy to treat drinking water and the dirtier the water is, the more expensive it is to treat it. On average, it costs about $2.4 million in sludge disposal to treat SEQ’s drinking water each year (Seqwater, 2017). Keeping our waterways clear of pollutants will reduce the cost of treatment, providing safe, affordable drinking water for all SEQ residents.
The Healthy Land and Water Report Card is proudly supported by:
