Implementing a broadscale monitoring program

​​​Broadscale monitoring programs (at catchment, regional or larger scales) usually aim to provide a broad or high-level assessment of the status of water/sediment quality to support community values across the spatial scale of the study. Clearly and effectively communicating the outcomes of the assessment to a diverse audience is often required.

In the Water Quality Guidelines we focus on how the Water Quality Management Framework​ can be used to implement broadscale monitoring programs for aquatic ecosystems. However, broadscale monitoring can be used to assess water/sediment quality for all community values (e.g. ecosystem health, crop irrigation, fisheries stocks, monitoring of the extent of toxic blue–green algal blooms).

Broadscale assessments can be useful for:

  • environmental reporting (e.g. State of the Environment reports)
  • rapid, cost-effective and adequate first-pass determination of the extent of a problem or potential problem (e.g. as applied to broadscale land-use issues or diffuse-source effluent discharges)
  • screening of sites to identify locations needing more detailed investigation
  • remediation programs being conducted over broad geographical areas.

Budget limitations will usually preclude the gathering of detailed quantitative information across large spatial scales. Instead, you can use cost-effective rapid approaches that can generate adequate first-pass data over large areas.

Assessments usually involve some level of averaging or smoothing of sparse measurements across large areas to highlight general trends or differences between regions. The data may be adequate for management purposes or to help managers decide what type of further information may be required.

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