Reef Rescue Water Quality R&D Program

Reef Rescue is a key component of Caring for our Country, the Australian Government’s $2 billion initiative to restore the health of Australia’s environment and improve land management practices. It represents a coordinated approach to environmental management in Australia that is built on transparent and consistent national targets.

Queensland farmers, agricultural, tourism, fishing and aquaculture industries, Indigenous communities, conservation groups, research organisers and, most importantly, the Great Barrier Reef will benefit from Reef Rescue’s investment of $200 million over five years in actions that protect one of the world’s great natural wonders.  Reef Rescue’s objective is to improve water quality in the Great Barrier Reef lagoon by increasing the adoption of land management practices that reduce the run-off of nutrients, pesticides and sediments from agricultural land.

As part of the overall Reef Rescue program, the Reef Rescue Water Quality Research and Development Program ('Reef Rescue R&D') will be implemented in collaboration with several key related research and monitoring programs. These include the Reef Plan Paddock to Reef Integrated Monitoring, Modelling and Reporting Program, the Reef Protection Package research program (to support implementation of the Great Barrier Reef Protection Amendment Act 2009 (Queensland), the National Environmental Research Program Tropical Ecosystems Hub, the Great Barrier Reef Foundation’s eReefs initiative and a range of industry research programs. Collectively, these programs will support the implementation and evaluation of the Great Barrier Reef Water Quality Protection Plan (‘Reef Plan’) and the measurement of progress towards achievement of the water quality targets defined for Reef Plan and Reef Rescue.

The Reef Rescue R&D Research Linkages report outlines direct links between Reef Rescue R&D and NERP TE Hub water quality programs.  To download this and other supporting Reef Rescue R&D documents, visit the temporary Reef Rescue R&D webpages:  http://rrrc.org.au/reefrescue/

Related Projects: 
Project 1.1 'Monitoring status and trends of coral reefs of the Great Barrier Reef'
Project 4.1 'Tracking coastal turbidity over time and demonstrating the effects of river discharge events on regional turbidity in the Great Barrier Reef'
Project 4.2 'The chronic effects of pesticides and their persistence in tropical waters'
Project 4.3 'Ecological risk assessment of pesticides, nutrients and sediments on water quality and ecosystem health - Phase 1'
Project 5.1 'Understanding diversity of the Great Barrier Reef: Spatial and temporal dynamics and environmental drivers'
Project 5.2 'Experimental and field investigations of combined water quality and climate effects on corals and other reef organisms'
Project 5.3 'Vulnerability of seagrass habitats in the Great Barrier Reef to flood plume impacts: light, nutrients, salinity'
Project 9.4 'Conservation planning for a changing coastal zone'
Project 10.1 'Social and Economic Long Term Monitoring Program (SELTMP)'
Project 10.2 'Socio-economic systems and reef resilience'
Project 13.1 'e-Atlas for the Great Barrier Reef and Torres Strait'