Australian Natural Resources Atlas

Natural Resource Topics

Rivers - Assessment of River Condition - Northern Territory

Location Map

Northern Territory River Assessment

Melville and Bathurst Islands Finniss River Adelaide River Mary River Wildman River South Alligator River East Alligator River Goomadeer River Liverpool River Blyth River Goyder River Buckingham River Koolatong River Walker River Groote Eylandt Moyle River Daly River Roper River Fitzmaurice River Keep River Ord River Victoria River Towns River Limmen Bight River Rosie River McArthur River Robinson River Calvert River Settlement Creek Wiso Barkley Nicholson River Mackay Burt Georgina River Hay River Todd River Finke River Warburton

Assessment Results

The Northern Territory covers 1,346,200 km2, has a coastline of 6,200 km, and comprises 17.5 percent of the total area of Australia. The Territory has two distinct climatic seasons - the wet season from November to March when Darwin has an average annual rainfall of 1500 mm, and the dry season when rainfall is only 25 mm. Topographic features of the Northern Territory include: the high rocky Arnhem Land Plateau; the Tanami Desert which extends into Western Australia; and the Simpson Desert which extends into Queensland and South Australia.

The biological assessment of Western Australian rivers showed approximately 88% of the river length assessed in the Northern Territory was in reference condition. However, only 11% of the total river length had been assessed. The environmental assessment found that 77% of the assessed river length was largely unmodified, and the rest in moderately modified condition. This degradation was attributed to catchment disturbance and changes to the physical habitat.

Fifty seven percent of the river length assessed had disturbed catchments, with degradation largely attributable to land use activities. There has been no significant change to the hydrological regime of the assessed river length in the Northern Territory.

Riverine physical habitat has been altered in 37% of the river length assessed in the Northern Territory. Changes to the riparian vegetation (41% modified) contributed the most to altered physical habitat though it should be noted that the bedload condition was not determined in the Northern Territory.

A water quality index was not determined in the Northern Territory.

Comparison of the Biota Index and the Environment Index

Ideally, scores for the two main indices would be similar for each basin. In general, the Biota Index does not demonstrate the same degree of degradation as the Environment Index. Reasons for this may include:

Environment Index scores compared to Biota Index scores for all basins.

Environment Index scores compared to Biota Index scores for all basins.

Further Information

Key

   Links to an another web site
   Opens a pop-up window