2007 Wetland Inventory for the Eyre Peninsula

SECTION THREEWETLAND MONITORING28.0 INTRODUCTIONThere are three important steps in developing monitoring protocols that can be applied effectively within theSouth Australian wetland management context.These consist of:1. Identification of wetland values (collating and collecting existing information and undertaking baselinesurveys)2. Identification of wetland threats (from the analysis of wetland values)3. Development of monitoring indicators that highlight early changes in ecologicalCharacter.“Monitoring essentially means the keeping of a continual record of certain parameters, advising whetherthey are being maintained within prescribed limits and warning if undesirable changes occur” (Hart 1980).Finlayson and Eliot (2001) expand on this definition by emphasising that the information derived frommonitoring provides a platform on which management actions are both based and judged.Finlayson and Mitchell (1999) identified the following five major reasons for monitoring wetlands:• To characterise variations in responses of wetlands to natural variability in the environment;• To collect baseline data on wetlands as part of inventory processes;• To record ecological changes that may be occurring as a result of specific natural or anthropogenicevents;• To measure progress toward set objectives of a management program; and• To audit the performance of management agencies and land users.28.1 Ecological changeThe third dot point mentions ecological change, the Ramsar Convention for Internationally ImportantWetlands states that in order to record ecological change, the ecological character needs to be defined.Once defined it is possible to monitor for changes in ecological character.Ecological character is the combined biological, physical, and chemical components of the wetlandecosystem, and their interactions, which maintain the wetland and its products, functions and attributes.The change in ecological character is the impairment or imbalance in any biological, physical, or chemicalcomponents of the wetland ecosystem, or in their interactions, which maintain the wetland and its products,functions and attributes. (www.ramsar.org/key_guide-list-e.html)The Ramsar Convention provides detailed guidelines for monitoring the ecological character of wetlands.These include guidelines for initiating and conducting a risk assessment framework. The Ramsar riskassessment framework consists of six steps and these are:Step 1 - Identification of the problem. This is the process of identifying the nature of the problem anddeveloping a plan for the remainder of the risk assessment based on this information. It defines theobjectives and scope of, and provides the foundation for, the risk assessment. In the case of a chemicalimpact, it would include obtaining and integrating information on the characteristics (for example, properties,known toxicity) and source of the chemical, what is likely to be affected, and how is it likely to be affected,and importantly, what is to be protected.49