2020-07-07 P&E Agenda - Item 3 - Attachment 1 - TNC Project Management Plan

4. Objective Two: Site Selection

4.1 Purpose and deliverables

The purpose of this objective is to identify suitable areas for shellfish and potentially seagrass restoration in the Noosa
Estuary. The end goal is to spatially identify all areas where restoration is possible (maximum restorable bottom) by
considering ecological, social, cultural and regulatory input. Multiple data sets are used and overlaid on a bathymetric
map to create a habitat suitability index. This data is then cross-referenced with observations from the field to develop
a robust assessment of suitable suites. Using the habitat suitability index, priority areas can then be identified for
restoration. By considering a diverse range of data (e.g. salinity, temperature, shoreline, navigation, cultural sites) the
risk of siting restoration within ecological, social or culturally inappropriate locations is reduced.

The deliverables associated with this objective include:

    •     (A2.1) Shellfish ecosystem restoration suitability model incorporating physical parameters of oysters and
          public and industry usage, access etc. to identify priority sites for restoration.
    •     (A2.2) Obtain Local and State Government permits/authorities including particular resource allocation
          authority, for shellfish ecosystem restoration
    •     (A2.3) Community, industry and stakeholder consultation sufficient to gain majority support for shellfish
          restoration locations.

4.2 Data procurement and licensing

Where required, TNC will enter into data sharing agreements with third party data holders to obtain access to
ecological and physical data required for project planning and decision making. Ecological data collected as part of
this project (i.e. all data associated with Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting) will be freely available by TNC on
request and licensed under Creative Commons with attribution to TNC. All ecological data associated with shellfish
monitoring is stored in perpetuity and freely available on Atlas of Living Australia upon completion of the Project.

4.3 Project workflow

(A2.1) Shellfish restoration suitability model incorporating physical parameters of oysters and public and industry
usage, access etc. to identify priority sites for restoration.

Timeline: 12 months

TNC uses a standardized methodology for developing habitat suitably models that consists of identifying a suite of
ecological, social and cultural values and condition thresholds for each of these values. An initial list of habitat
attributes is developed (Table 4) which is then refined through discussions with the Technical Advisory Group, project
technical advisors and the community. The model is then validated with observations from the field. A preliminary
field observation was completed in December 2019 to assist with site selection.

A spatial example of the process is displayed in Figure 4.




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        BRING BACK THE FISH: PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN