Indicators of Catchment Condition in the Intensive Land Use Zone of Australia – Nutrient point source hazard

\n\nIt should be noted that this data is now somwhat dated!\n\nNutrients can enter streams from point, diffuse from various extensive land-\nuses or natural sources. In this indicator only industrial point sources\n(mines, quarries and chemical plants) and intensive agricultural production\nand urban point sources (abattoirs, dairy, livestock production, sewerage) are\nconsidered. The Wild Rivers data set (Environment Australia) includes national\ndata on point sources of pollution (1:250K).\n\nThis data set can be separated into industrial (mines, quarries, chemical)\npoint sources and nutrient point sources (abattoirs, dairy, livestock\nproduction, sewage). These data were obtained from state and federal sources\nand much of the contaminated sites, chemical pollution and nutrient pollution\ndata are far from comprehensive (i.e. available for NSW, Victoria and SA\nonly).\n\nReliability of the available data is good, but the data set is incomplete.\nOnly nutrient point source data is used in this indicator. The density of\nnutrient point sources is not an unequivocal indicator of excessive nutrient\nlevels in nearby waterways, since diffuse agricultural sources and natural\nsources are not included. As for the industrial point sources, there is no\ndistinction made between types of nutrients exported, discharge magnitude and\nfrequency, existing environmental safe guards and proximity to stream network.\n\nInterpretation is also confounded by the incompletedness of the data set. At\nbest, this is an indicator of nutrient hazard. It has not been validated\nagainst the assessment question. The 500 and AWRC maps give a similar picture,\nwith the major point sources located in the Murray-Darling Basin and central\nVictoria. The Bunyip, Moorabool, Kiewa and Ovens Rivers in Victoria, the Namoi\nRiver in NSW and the Torrens River in South Australia have a notably high\nnutrient point source hazard.\n\nData are available as:\n\n * continental maps at 5km (0.05 deg) cell resolution for the ILZ;\n * spatial averages over CRES defined catchments (CRES, 2000) in the ILZ;\n * spatial averages over the AWRC river basins in the ILZ.\n\nSee [further metadata](http://data.daff.gov.au/anrdl/metadata_files/pa_iccilr9ab\n__06321axx.xml) for more detail.\n\n