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Below is a special summary of our highlights and achievements from 2009.
A major highlight for the Partnership in 2009 was being awarded the Banksia Environmental Award for Water. This national recognition of the Partnership's achievements showcases the inspiring work being carried out right here in South East Queensland. Particular achievements noted by the Banksia judges included the development of the SEQ Healthy Waterways Strategy, increasing the uptake of Water Sensitive Urban Design and providing scientific advice to assist in prioritising management actions. The Ecosystem Health Report Card was also highly commended.
| SEQ Healthy Waterways Strategy Launched in May 2008, the SEQ Healthy Waterways Strategy 2007-2012 contains over 500 actions which Partners have committed to implementing. The Partnership Office is the responsible organisation for the delivery of 101 of the 500 actions. Presently the Partnership Office is funded to deliver 35 of these actions, and the following program updates reflect this work. In May 2009 the Partnership Office began working with Partners to develop the Management Response (279KB)  section of the 2009 Ecosystem Health Report Card. This work involved confirming and updating the actions in the Strategy and highlighted the wide scope of Strategy actions committed to by Partners and the quantum of investment required to deliver them. At the same time we reviewed the need for an appropriate decision support tool to assist with tracking the efficacy of management actions. To provide guidance on this work we established a working group of Local and State Government, industry and community representatives. It is a major challenge to link the outcomes of a management action to the achievement of the Strategy's Resource Condition Targets and Management Outcomes given the many variables affecting these outcomes. Thus, this work will continue through 2010. For more information visit the Strategy
|  | Science and Innovation In 2009, the Science and Innovation Program focused on implementation of the Management Strategy Evaluation (5.13MB) (Research) Action Plan of the SEQ Healthy Waterways Strategy. The Program partnered with research institutions to leverage funding in addressing Partners specific needs and general research issues affecting waterways. The key achievements for 2009 include: Satellite Projects aimed at developing decision support tools for Partners. These projects showcase significant leveraging of Partner funding with research institutions and include: - Healthy Waterways Receiving Water Quality Model for SEQ coasts, estuaries and Moreton Bay version 3 - a state-of-the-art simulation and decision support tool to manage SEQ's waterways. (Leveraged with CSIRO Wealth from Oceans and BMT WBM at 1:2 ratio).
- Healthy Waterways Management Strategy Evaluation - a tool to support the adaptive management cycle by providing an evaluation, modelling and management framework for implementation of the SEQ Healthy Waterways Strategy. (Leveraged with CSIRO Wealth from Oceans at 1:4 ratio).
- Health-e-waterways - an integrated information network for SEQ's waterways. (Leveraged with the University of Queensland, Australian Research Council, Microsoft e-Research and Smart State funding at an impressive 1:20 ratio).
- Healthy Country - development of a spatial optimisation tool and monitoring & evaluation framework for the prioritisation of investments to address non-urban diffuse loads (Leveraged with eWater CRC at 1:3 ratio).
- EHMP Review - a Terms of Reference for this project has been developed and Expressions of Interest for a Review Coordinator have been sought. A Working Group has been established to oversee the process.
Issue-based or specific projects are requested and funded by Partners and usually focus on their respective areas of interest. These projects are managed by the Science and Innovation Program in accordance with QA/QC processes (i.e. peer review process and science translation and synthesis). Some of these projects included: - Siting of desalination plants in Moreton Bay
- Environmental flow requirements for urban streams (Brisbane City Council)
- Logan/Albert reuse and total water cycle management options (Queensland Water Commission)
- Sustainable loads for Ipswich Waterways in relation to WWTP discharges (Ipswich Water/Ipswich City Council)
- South Pine River Sustainable Loads (Moreton Bay Regional Council)
- Implications of supply of recycled water to the Lockyer and Warrill Valleys and mid-Brisbane River for groundwater recharge (Queensland Water Commission)
- Developing web-based software and database for freshwater monitoring of Brisbane's waterways (Brisbane City Council).
In addition, the Science and Innovation Program conducted peer review of projects on behalf of Partners. In 2009, these projects included the review of: - Gold Coast Seaway WWTP discharge options (Gold Coast Water)
- Coombabah Creek Sustainable Loads project (Gold Coast City Council)
- Lockyer Water Quality Metric (DERM).
For more information visit Science and Innovation
|  | Ecosystem Health Monitoring Program The key achievements for 2009 include: - 2008-09 was the 7th year that the Ecosystem Health Monitoring Program completed the monitoring of 19 catchments, 18 estuaries and 9 zones within Moreton Bay. Ecosystem health was monitored monthly at 254 estuarine and marine sites, and twice a year at 135 freshwater sites.
- The SEQ Event Monitoring Program monitored pollutant loads entering waterways during rainfall events at 75 event stations across the region.
- The 2009 Report Card was launched at four media events (central, northern, western and southern) on 21 October 2009.
- The 2009 Report Card also marked the launch of health-e-waterways, an interactive, web-based system which provides the public with further details on the health of SEQ's waterways and Report Card results
- A new Event Monitoring Scientific Expert Panel was convened to provide scientific and technical advice on the program's underlying science, methods, analysis, data synthesis, interpretation of results and reporting.
- The SEQ Event Monitoring Program began to develop new reporting products, and has been working with Partner organisations to confirm the program's structure and organisational arrangements.
- During March 2009, the inaugural SEQ Event Monitoring Forum was held, with participants from Partner organisations sharing information and knowledge on event monitoring in SEQ.
- In February 2009, an SEQ Event Monitoring Familiarisation Day was hosted to assist Partner organisations in developing and maintaining event monitoring field skills.
For more information visit Ecosystem Health Monitoring Program
|  | Healthy Country There are four sub-projects under the Healthy Country project with the SEQ Healthy Waterways Partnership providing the science and planning, SEQ Catchments managing the waterway restoration, Queensland Primary Industries & Fisheries leading sustainable land management and South East Queensland Traditional Owners Alliance managing Traditional Owner engagement. The key achievements for 2009 include: - Numerous field trips and community meetings were undertaken in the priority catchments to provide information to the community from the science team and to gain an understanding of the erosion processes that dominate these focal catchments.
- Waterway rehabilitation plans were produced, in partnership with the eWater CRC, for the three focal catchments (Bremer, Lockyer and Knapps Creek). The Plans included sediment budgets, testing of the sediment budgets and rehabilitation scenarios including the types of activities required to achieve 50% reduction in sediment.
- A suite of "no regrets" projects identified in each focal catchment were assessed by the science team on their applicability to the project's overall aims.
- A Monitoring and Evaluation Strategy was developed with the eWater CRC and implementation commenced.
- A Communication Strategy for the Healthy Country project was developed and implemented. Achievements have included:
For more information visit Healthy Country
|  | Water by Design During 2009 the Water by Design Program has provided capacity building resources to assist government and the development industry implement effective Water Sensitive Urban Design. The key achievements for 2009 include: Training Guidelines and Forums - Water by Design now has 10 ongoing training modules. New courses include a stormwater harvesting course and advanced courses in bioretention systems and constructed wetlands.
- A number of best practice guidelines were completed in 2009 to complement the WSUD Technical Design Guidelines for SEQ and the Draft State Planning Policy (Healthy Waters). These new guidelines will assist with the implementation of WSUD across different aspects of the infrastructure lifecycle.
- Three industry forums and bus tours were held in 2009 to encourage knowledge sharing and showcase best practice examples of on-ground WSUD.
- Support for development assessment officers was provided through three full-day workshops helping them achieve best practice outcomes in their roles. An online forum was also developed to further support networking and knowledge sharing between development assessment officers.
Policy and Planning Recognition For more information visit Water by Design
|  | Communication, Education and Motivation During 2009 the Communication, Education and Motivation (CEM) team implemented numerous actions to improve brand awareness and promote the adoption of the Partnership's Vision. The key achievements for 2009 include: - An independent review of Healthy Waterways' communication tools and channels was conducted (including a partner survey), and as a result a Communications Strategy was developed for the Partnership Office.
- Planning was carried out for a collaborative social research project to benchmark South East Queensland's attitudes, awareness and behaviour towards waterway health issues. A literature review was conducted of current social research relating to waterway health. The next step is an online community survey which will be launched in mid-February 2010 and promoted widely by Healthy Waterways Partners. The results of this survey will assist the development, implementation and evaluation of communication, education and motivation (CEM) activities. For more information, please contact Sharon Marks on sharon.marks@healthywaterways.org or 3123 1682.
- The 9th annual Healthy Waterways Awards provided recognition and reward to outstanding waterway health projects. The Awards were held in May 2009 at a new venue with larger capacity and for the first time guests were able to purchase tickets to the Awards ceremony.
- The SEQ Water Educators and Communicators Network (SUCCESS) was reinvigorated in January 2009 to foster collaboration and partnerships. The network met five times in 2009.
- The ongoing delivery of a community education program including attendance at over 36 community and catchment events.
- The Healthy Waterways Clean Up Program removed over 230,000 items of rubbish from the Brisbane and Bremer Rivers, Gold Coast and Logan waterways. In addition, a sponsorship strategy was developed to secure funding for the expansion of the Healthy Waterways Clean Up Program.
- The Partnership's website was completely redeveloped and launched in June 2009. An online survey confirmed that 100% of users would recommend the website to others and 94% of users were able to find what they were looking for on the website. The website receives an average of 25,000 visits per month.
- A range of communication and education products were developed including fact sheets, posters, community service announcements, educational displays for events and a new corporate video.
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