An assessment of catchment condition in Australia

The main points to emerge were: clear interpretable patterns of better to poorer condition were defined for the intensive land-use zone; visualisations of catchment condition were markedly different for classes defined by equal area or equal interval; the broad patterns of relative condition could be captured with relatively few aggregated indicators; the cross-comparisons suggested areas where land-use changes are needed to develop sustainable land-use systems. The study illustrates that relatively low quality but extensive data can be used to provide a rational basis to identify priority areas for management action and for natural resource management policy development. We suggest that the development of a higher quality national data set in Australia to assess the condition of the Nation's catchments may be best achieved through the co-ordination and collection of core data sets (indicators) at regional scales.