Environmental monitoring

A healthy River Murray is vital for South Australian communities and industries, as well as the internationally important wetlands and floodplains, that all depend on its water.

Environmental monitoring provides information on the health of the river and the ecosystems that rely on it so decisions can be made to ensure water quality and salinity levels are good, plants and wildlife can thrive and enough water is available for the environment, industries and communities.

River, wetland and floodplain monitoring

Ongoing wetland and floodplain monitoring is carried out at sites along the length of the River Murray to help maintain or improve their condition.

Detailed environmental monitoring and water quality monitoring has also taken place in the Coorong, Lower Lakes and Murray Mouth to assess the region’s response to flow conditions and recovery following the Millennium drought.

Real time water monitoring data for the River Murray is also available on WaterConnect.

Basin Plan monitoring

Environmental monitoring will be carried out, along with other monitoring and evaluation, to ensure South Australia meets its obligations under the Basin Plan. This will include reporting on water for the environment, water quality and salinity, water trading rules and water resource planning.

Community monitoring

There are opportunities to get involved in community water monitoring across the South Australian Murray-Darling Basin to collect valuable data helping to understand the water quality and environmental needs of wetlands across the region.

Schools, individuals and community groups have been assessing the health of waterways in the SA Murray-Darling Basin region for over 20 years.

Find out more about citizen science in the Natural Resources Murray-Darling Basin region.

Regional monitoring projects

A number of regional environmental monitoring projects have helped to collect and analyse data through monitoring. These include but are not limited to the following:

Murray-Darling Basin wide monitoring

The Murray-Darling Basin Authority carries out ongoing water quality monitoring to create a picture of current and long-term river health within the River Murray system.