1. A case study in the Mackay Whitsunday region Using Water Quality Improvement Plans and report cards to direct priorities: pollutants and locations for management
Emma Carlos
Our Partnership are using both the report card and the relevant WQIPs to help prioritise management investment.
Here is the story of how

2. Overview of the GBR, NRM Regions, Basins  with LTSP and WQIP covering these scales
and Mackay-Whitsunday region  MW WQIP and report card covering the region

3. Regional Mackay-Whitsunday WQIP Regional Mackay-Whitsunday report card
The framework: How it all fits together
Ecologically relevant ecosystem health targets – seagrass, corals, wetlands, riparian
Sub-catchment
Regional
GBR
Reef 2050 Plan
(GBR-wide, 2015)
Management Action Targets
GBR wide ecological requirements
Agriculture; ground cover; riparian; urban; industry; wetlands; engagement
Vision: Improving Outstanding Universal Value of GBR WHA
2050 water quality outcome: Reef WQ sustains the Outstanding Universal Value, builds resilience and improves ecosystem health over each successive decade
Load reduction targets
End of catchment land-sourced pollutants
sediment, nutrients and pesticides (at relevant scales)
Ecological requirements
RIMReP
Draft Reef WQIP
(6 regions, 35 basins, 2018)
Management Action Targets
GBR wide ecological requirements
Agriculture; urban; ground cover; riparian; industry; wetlands; engagement
GBR report card
Load reduction targets
End of catchment land-sourced pollutants
sediment, nutrients and pesticides
Achievability
Regional Mackay-Whitsunday WQIP
(33 sub-catchments, 2014)
Management Action Targets
Sub-catchment scale achievability
Agriculture; urban; industry & ports; riparian; wetlands
Regional Mackay-Whitsunday report card
(5 basins, 2014)
The plans represent increasing level of detail
Reef 2050 Plan GBR wide, holistic approach to improving outstanding value, includes but is not limited to water quality outcomes
Draft Reef WQIP WQ focus, 6 regions and basins (35 GBR basins)
MW WQIP sub-catchments (4/35 of the basins broken down into 33 sub-catchments)
The plans set management action targets needed to achieve load reductions required for ecosystem health. So targets are based on ecosystem requirements.
The Reef WQIP is the most recent (in draft) and action targets are two directional- have been guided by the Reef 2050 Plan so in meeting targets they will assist in meeting the Reef 2050 Plan targets.
Regional WQIP also sets management action targets needed to achieve load reductions. These targets have not been directed by Reef wide targets, but instead are set based on achievability. So unidirectional arrow, in that these actions will contribute to meeting reef targets, but do not necessarily match these targets.
Reporting programs and report cards assist in tracking progress of targets of the Plans.
M-W report card does not explicitly track management actions and load targets, but gives an overarching view of ecosystem health  the ultimate end point of the WQIP

4. Differences between lines of evidence
Reef WQIP
Regional Mackay-Whitsunday WQIP
Targets based on ecological requirements
Basin scale targets
Targets based on most up to date modelling
Targets based on achievability
Sub-catchment scale targets
Targets based on different modelling
Includes social and economic factors
Should be used at sub-catchment scale
Does not include the Don basin
A reminder of the scale covered by the two WQIPs and the MW report card.
Reef and regional WQIPs and report card do not completely align. We need to find commonalities.

5. Reef WQIP: Pollutants and priority basins across the GBR
Ecologically relevant load reduction targets for the 35 GBR basins
Five priority pollutants: DIN, fine sediment, PN, PP, Pesticides
Relative priorities across 35 GBR basins
Relative priority for water quality improvement
Very High
High
Moderate
Low
Minimal
Not assessed
Scale
DIN PN PP
Fine sediment
Pesticide
Reduction (%)
Reduction (tonnes/yr)
Species protected (%)
Don 30 75 43
55000 99
Proserpine 70
110
O’Connell
130 40
250
120
96000
Pioneer
140 20 61 23
35000
Plane
260
So what is the Reef WQIP telling us about the priorities in the Mackay Whitsundays?
-sets targets of all 35 basins, also prioritises these 35 basins in terms of their relative priority for wq improvement for each pollutant.
Based on priority basins for each of five priority pollutants across GBR: pesticides and DIN are highest priorities in MW and Plane and Pioneer the priority basins for these pollutants;
Sediment and particulate nutrients are lower priorities and O’Connell is the priority basin for these pollutants.
Notice that out of all the GBR basins, plane is the only basin where pesticides is a very high priority

6. Reef WQIP: Pollutants and priority basins in Mackay-Whitsunday
Pollutants: Pesticides and DIN (Very High and High)
Plane basin: Pesticides (Very High) and DIN (High)
Pioneer basin: Pesticides (High) and DIN (Moderate)
O’Connell basin: Pesticides (Moderate) and DIN (Moderate)
Proserpine basin: Pesticides (not assessed) and DIN (Moderate)
Don basin: Pesticides (not assessed) and DIN (Low)
Pollutants: Sediment and particulate nutrients (Moderate and Low)
O’Connell basin: Sediment (Moderate) and particulate nutrients (Moderate)
Don and Plane basins: Sediment (Low) and particulate nutrients (Low)
Pioneer and Proserpine basins: Sediment and particulate nutrients (no increase from current)
Based on priority basins for each of five priority pollutants across GBR: pesticides and DIN are highest priorities in MW and Plane and Pioneer the priority basins for these pollutants; sediment and particulate nutrients are lower priorities and O’Connell is the priority basin for these pollutants.

7. Report card: Water quality in our basins
Water Quality condition
Plane
Pioneer
O’Connell
Reef WQIP priorities
Pollutants: Pesticides and DIN (Very High and High)
Plane basin: Pesticides (Very High) and DIN (High)
Pioneer basin: Pesticides (High) and DIN (Moderate)
O’Connell basin: Pesticides (Moderate) and DIN (Moderate)
Proserpine basin: Pesticides (not assessed) and DIN (Moderate)
Don basin: Pesticides (not assessed) and DIN (Low)
What is our other line of evidence saying about basin priorities?
The report card wq condition results for basins match the order of priority that the Reef WQIP placed the basins

8. Regional Mackay-Whitsunday WQIP: Sub-catchment targets
Sub-catchment scale (33 sub-catchments)
Process to agreeing to targets based on achievability
ecosystem health condition
water quality condition
load reduction
management practice adoption
ecosystem management
Different modelling, scale and process used compared to Reef WQIP mean targets are not comparable
Moving to our final line of evidence the regional WQIP, high level of detailed information and targets for each of the 33 sub-catchments, but modelling and approach to determining targets doesn’t match reef WQIP.

9. Summary: Priority pollutants and sub-catchments
Prioritise sub-catchments by basins
Plane (Rocky Dam, Alligator, Sandy)
Pioneer (Pioneer, Mackay city)
O’Connell (Blackrock, Murray)
Proserpine (Myrtle, Lethebrook)
Don
Order sub-catchments based on magnitude of targets for regional pollutant priorities
Pesticides
DIN
Sediment
Particulate nutrients
What does priority mean: where most change is needed and what is achievable
How to best use information in Regional WQIP?
To best use the information in the regional WQIP we considered what we have learnt in the Reef WQIP and report card around pollutant and basin priorities and ordered sub-catchments based on the magnitude of the relevant pollutant targets in each of the basins. Priority sub-catchments are the top 2-3 sub-catchments from each basin.
This approach means some sub-catchments, where there is a high target for sediment, will not be listed as a key sub-catchment (like Blacks creek in Pioneer basin; Blacks creek- 93% grazing land, sediment delivers particulate nutrients). But part of the purpose of the forum is to allow discussion of this approach.
Sub-catchments within basins ordered based on Pesticides and DIN targets thus sub-catchments will be prioritised based on
 where most change is needed and what is achievable
We will be looking for agreement among our 23 Partners on these priorities and will then move to identifying within a selection of these sub-catchments the priority management investments to address these priorities.

10. Thank you
Our Partnership are using both the report card and the relevant WQIPs to help prioritise management investment.
Here is the story of how