Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Government has supported the generation of state-based wetland strategies.
In South Australia, at the base of the MDB, the 2001 Select Committee of the
South Australian Parliament stated that 'wetlands are essential to the main-
tenance of hydrological, physical and ecological health of the riverine environ-
ment and provide economic, social and cultural benefits to the broader
community' (DEH & DWLBC 2003, p. 9). One of the cornerstones of the 2003
Wetlands Strategy for South Australia, was a 'recognition that action is needed to see
water-dependent ecosystems understood, protected and restored or rehabilitated
as part of addressing South Australia's degradation of land and water resources
and loss of biological diversity' (DEH & DWLBC 2003, p. 11). Furthermore, of the
seven key research priorities identified under this strategy were:
defining, for differing wetland types and proposed uses, their limits or
thresholds of acceptable change;
identifying natural wetting and drying cycles of wetlands and the biological
and other responses of these;
environmental water needs of different wetland types and their related
biota;
better understanding of the macro- and microinvertebrates of wetlands;
implications of long-term alterations/changes in salinity and climate
change on wetlands;
inventory tools including minimum datasets, classification systems, wet-
land condition indices . . .; and
early warning indicators of impacts on wetlands and monitoring protocols
(DEH & DWLBC 2003, p. 25).
These priorities recognised the need to understand wetland change, particu-
larly the drivers of change and the wetland responses, to build the state's
capacity to restore or rehabilitate its water-dependent ecosystems.
The Water Framework Directive
Perhaps an even more ambitious approach to wetland restoration is the Water
Framework Directive (WFD) or 'Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parlia-
ment and of the council of 23 October 2000; establishing a framework for
community action in the field of water policy'. It identifies the need to manage
European water resources in an integrated fashion by understanding all com-
ponents of the ecosystem at the catchment scale (Bennion & Battarbee
2007
).
The principal aim of the WFD is to 'achieve good ecological quality in all
relevant waters by 2015'. High ecological quality is deemed to be a wetland
that is entirely or largely undisturbed relative to a reference or baseline condi-
tion identified mostly on the basis of the ecological structure and function of
its aquatic ecosystem. The condition of good condition is satisfied if the site
has only slightly deviated from the reference. This equates to the measure of
