2016-02-02 P&O Committee - Item 3 - Attachment 3 - Noosa River Environmental Values and Water Quality Objectives

Noosa River environmental values and water quality objectives




5      Dictionary
AMTD means the adopted middle thread distance which is the distance in kilometres, measured along the
middle of a watercourse, that a specific point in the watercourse is from the watercourse’s mouth or junction
with the main watercourse (definition based on Water Regulation 2002).

ANZECC means the Australian and New Zealand Environment and Conservation Council.

Aquatic ecosystems (defined in the AWQG, 2000): comprise the animals, plants and micro-organisms that
live in water, and the physical and chemical environment and climatic regime in which they interact. It is
predominantly the physical components (eg light, temperature, mixing, flow, habitat) and chemical
components (eg organic and inorganic carbon, oxygen, nutrients) of an ecosystem that determine what lives
and breeds in it, and therefore the structure of the food web. Biological interactions (eg grazing and
predation) can also play a part in structuring many aquatic ecosystems.

ARMCANZ means the Agriculture and Resource Management Council of Australia and New Zealand.
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Basin means the Basin name and number provided by Geoscience Australia, Canberra (3 edition, 2004).

Biological integrity, of water, means the water’s ability to support and maintain a balanced, integrative,
adaptive community of organisms having a species composition, diversity and functional organisation
comparable to that of the natural habitat of the locality in which the water is situated.

Catchment means the total area draining into a river, creek, reservoir or other body of water. The limits of a
given catchment are the heights of land (such as hills or mountains) separating it from neighbouring
catchments. Catchments can be made up of smaller sub-catchments.

Ecological health (defined in the AWQG, 2000): means the ‘health’ or ‘condition’ of an ecosystem. It is the
ability of an ecosystem to support and maintain key ecological processes and organisms so that their
species compositions, diversity and functional organisations are as comparable as possible to those
occurring in natural habitats within a region (also termed ecological integrity).

Environmental value (EV) means:
(a) a quality or physical characteristic of the environment that is conducive to ecological health or public
amenity or safety; or
(b) another quality of the environment identified and declared to be an environmental value under an
Environmental Protection Policy or Regulation (e.g. water suitable for swimming in or drinking).

The EVs for water that can be identified for protection are outlined in Table 14.

Highest astronomical tide (HAT) (defined in Marine Parks (Declaration) Regulation 2006): means the
highest level of the tides that can be predicted to occur under average meteorological conditions and under
any combination of astronomical conditions.

High water mark (defined in Coastal Protection and Management Act 1995): means the ordinary high water
mark at spring tides.

Mean high water spring: refer high water mark.

Queensland waters (as defined in Acts Interpretation Act 1954): means all waters that are a) within the
limits of the State; or b) coastal waters of the State.

Sub-catchment means part of a catchment.




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