Ecological response monitoring to environmental water deliveries needs to cover a range of purposes. Victorian and Commonwealth governments are investing in research style long term monitoring which is important for building knowledge and in depth analysis of trends. These types of monitoring programs have an important place in reporting outcomes of environmental water use. However, there is, of necessity, a time lag between data collection and feedback in final form.
This leaves a gap for flow managers who often need rapid feedback on the effect of flow delivery. Photo monitoring of the lower Goulburn River (235 km) is used by GBCMA and is very effective in addressing this gap. The monitoring program was initiated to measure three main objectives:
Valuable aspects of this program are: its longevity (since 2012), its spatial coverage (9 locations within approximately 200 km of river), its coverage of inchannel features, and frequency (approx. 5 times/year).
The photo archive has been helpful in determining priorities for environmental flow management for the CMA, is inexpensive, designed around specific flow events and provides compelling evidence of channel change. Photo monitoring has also been used to derive vegetation changes by interrogating sequential photographs and has also precipitated a review of water policy. The photo series aids in building community acceptance of environmental water and successfully communicates issues, problems and successes.
Photo monitoring cannot replace long term integrated data collection but is a complementary and powerful tool for meeting a differing need. This presentation will discuss the advantages of photo monitoring to complement long term research style monitoring and provide a complete picture of riparian change.