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Ecologically Sustainable Development
Environment Australia, 2002
ISBN 0 642 54771 8
Rationale for inclusion of issue
The state of the oceans and coastal areas is crucial to the health of marine ecosystems and coastal terrestrial ecosystems (Core objective 3). Marine ecological processes are also essential to the welfare of future generations (Core Objective 1) and providing for inter-generational equity (Core Objective 2).
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Estuarine condition index: Proportion of estuaries in near pristine or slightly modified condition at 2001 |
72% |
Source: Morgan, G. (2001) Landscape health in Australia - A rapid assessment of the relative condition of the bioregions and subregions of Australia. National Land and Water Resources Audit Landscape Health Project, National Land and Water Resources Audit
Rationale for selection of indicator
The estuarine condition index is a comprehensive indicator of coastal health. Given that a principal anthropogenic threat to marine health is from coastal activities, it also provides a surrogate of marine health. Estuaries act as the system sumps for catchments and therefore reflect the aggregate impact of land-based impacts. They are also the major conduit of pollutants from the terrestrial regime to the coastal and marine system and are therefore a legitimate surrogate measure of the disturbance regime of these systems.
Explanatory and elaborative information
The estuarine condition index has been developed by the NLWRA. The figure reported here shows that 72% of estuaries are still in pristine or slightly modified condition while 28% are in substantially modified condition. However, at present, this does not include data from all States.