Wetlands Australia National Wetlands Update February 2013
Issue No. 22, February 2013
ISSN 1446-4843
Victorian Government Update
Department of Sustainability and Environment
Victoria is in the process of completing a number of significant achievements for wetlands that have been in development over the last four years.
In October 2012, the Draft Victorian Waterway Strategy was released for public comment. The draft Strategy outlines a policy and planning framework for the integrated management of rivers, wetlands and estuaries. The State Strategy, when finalised in 2013, will lay the foundation for the preparation of regional waterway strategies by Victoria's catchment management authorities and Melbourne Water. For further information see Victoria moves to a fully integrated program for rivers, wetlands and estuaries.
State-wide surveys on the condition of wetlands using the Victorian Index of Wetland Condition (IWC) were undertaken in 2009-10 and 2010-11. The materials which support the IWC were also updated, including the report on the assessment of wetland vegetation using the IWC and the second edition of a field guide to wetland vegetation. Reports outlining the results of the IWC surveys are on the Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) website .
Victoria updated its 1994 state-wide wetland inventory in 2012. The new 2012 wetland inventory incorporates wetland mapping that has been undertaken over the last decade in many parts of the State. At the same time, the wetland classification system has been updated and applied to the inventory. The classification follows the Australian National Aquatic Ecosystem classification framework.
A number of reports have been completed or are near completion on aspects of wetland management. These are being made available on the DSE Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research website and include reports on wetland connectivity, wetland conceptual models for associations between values, threats and management interventions and investigation of wetland hydrological regimes.
The DSE commissioned a consultant to assign wetland ecological vegetation classes to water regime categories based on expert knowledge of wetland vegetation. The information can be used to assist in environmental water management planning. It is available on the DSE website .
