Managing change in stream morphology
The inaugural Australian Stream Management Conference (1ASM) was held in Merrijig in February 1996.
This was an existing time for river managers in Australia. The 52 papers from 1ASM centered around five themes that reflected the trends in stream management of 1996:
- The understanding of stream erosion and sedimentation was improving.
- There was a growing appreciation of the relative role of human impact against the natural variation in the rates of erosion and sedimentation
- Revegetation, particularly riparian vegetation, was becoming the primary tool in stream management, and research in this area was growing.
- Restructuring of the water industry in Australia, and a redirection of public resources, had seen an increasing role for catchment-based community groups in stream management, and new roles for State government authorities.
- Catchment-based management had also led to broader definitions of stream management.
It’s interesting to see the editors point out that 1ASM had few papers on the links between stream management and stream ecology. Much to their credit, they predicted “that if we had this conference in ten years time, such papers would be common, as stteam ‘restoration’ becomes our management goal“.
Conference Proceedings
RBMS members can login to view and download all Conference Proceedings. The collection features more than 1000 full papers on Australian catchment and waterway management.