Conservation of riverine and wetland vegetation diversity is a key objective of the Basin Plan, and was a core element investigated at the Basin-scale in the LTIM Project.
The CEWO’s LTIM Project examined the contribution of Commonwealth environmental water to the environmental objectives of the Basin Plan 2012 (Basin Plan) and assisted the CEWO to demonstrate environmental outcomes and adaptively manage the water holdings. Monitoring and evaluation was focused in seven Selected Areas: the Junction of the Warrego and Darling rivers, Gwydir river system, Lachlan river system, Murrumbidgee river system, Edward/Kolety-Wakool river system, Goulburn River and Lower Murray River. These areas will continue to be monitored through the CEWO’s Monitoring, Evaluation and Research (MER) Program.
Data collected by monitoring at Selected Areas is used to evaluate local outcomes from watering and also contributed to the analysis and evaluation of Basin Plan objectives.
Vegetation diversity data was collected and used over the duration of the LTIM Project from 2014-15 to 2018-19 from four wetland Selected Areas (Gwydir, Lachlan, Murrumbidgee and junction of Warrego-Darling river systems) and two riverine Selected Areas (Edward/Kolety-Wakool and Goulburn river systems), considering plant species diversity and vegetation community diversity.
Data collected* includes the percent cover of plant species present within three vegetation strata (groundlayer, understorey and overstorey) and a range of environmental variables (e.g. soil moisture) at time of sampling.
*Data collected from the Edward/Kolety-Wakool river system is limited to Category 3 and does not have the same taxonomic resolution or range of observations as that from other Selected Areas.
Please refer to the Murray-Darling Basin LTIM Project: 2018-19 Basin-scale evaluation of Commonwealth environmental water – Vegetation Diversity Report for the detailed method on data used for evaluation.