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Flow regime requirements for instream ecology in the Waihou River catchment - Waihou catchment ecological monitoring 2009

TR 2014/09
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Report: TR 2014/09

Author: Paul Franklin, Doug Booker (National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Ltd

About this report

Waikato Regional Council is currently in the process of reviewing the status of water resource availability and allocation in the Waihou River catchment. Traditionally, water allocation rules have been based on the establishment of minimum flows required to sustain selected ecological values. However, as pressure on water resources increases and knowledge regarding the flow requirements of aquatic ecosystems improves, it is recognised that the establishment of minimum flows may be insufficient for adequate protection of water resources.

Read or download the survey report

Flow regime requirements for instream ecology in the Waihou River catchment - Waihou catchment ecological monitoring 2009 [PDF, 6.1 MB]

Contents
  Executive summary
1 Introduction
1.1 Background
1.2 Study brief
2 Defining environmental flow requirements
3 Methodology
3.1 Flow analysis
3.1.1 Background to the RVA
3.1.2 RVA method
3.1.3 Extension of flow records
3.1.4 Sites
3.2 Instream ecology
3.2.1 Sites
3.2.2 Fish
3.2.3 Invertebrates
3.2.4 Macrophytes
4 Results
4.1 Flow regime
4.1.1 Range of variability analysis
4.2 Instream ecology
4.2.1 Historical fish records
4.2.2 Current survey
5 Discussion
6 Recommendations
7 References
Appendix 1 Fish surveys
Appendix 2 Macroinvertebrates
Appendix 3 Macrophyte and periphyton data
Appendix 4 Field assessment and habitat assessment forms
Appendix 5 RVA as a context for minimum flows