Pimpama River Estuary Ecological Study
Abstract
This paper summarises the main features of a major ecological assessment study undertaken by Gold Coast Water as part of Council's Pimpama Coomera Water Future Master Plan. The study is a leading example of how the integration of local field data, state of the art computer modelling technology and specialist local scientific expertise can be used to describe and quantify the ecological response of a marine environment to external changes (in this case the potential discharge of treated wastewater to the Pimpama River estuary).
A unique feature of the modelling approach was the application of specialist modelling software to simulate the behaviour of key biological indicators such as seagrass and benthic microalgae. It is believed it is the first time this has been attempted at this scale in Australia, and it provided valuable quantitative information that was used to help assess the sustainability of different discharge scenarios.
Authors
Ralph Burch, Sinclair Knight Merz
Dean Toomey, Gold Coast Water