Supporting water quality monitoring for sugar cane farming

Water quality monitoring is important for environmental protection, managing waterways and catchments, identifying pollution events and their effects on ecosystems and human health, and for community education and stewardship. Excess nutrients and sediment runoff from agricultural practices remains the major contributor to poor water quality running from freshwater streams to the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) lagoon. Water quality monitoring initiatives and programs are therefore implemented in the GBR catchments across different spatial and temporal scales by different stakeholders, to address a variety of questions and objectives.

With the increasing urgency to meet specific pollutant load reduction targets set in the Reef 2050 Water Quality Improvement Plan (WQIP), the need for robust, credible water quality monitoring is essential for quantifying and supporting the benefits of improved land management practices.  

The Water Quality Monitoring Support project, funded through the partnership between the Australian Government's Reef Trust and the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, was established to provide technical advice and coordination for Regional Water Quality Programs that targeted reductions in dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) and pesticides from sugar cane farming practice change projects, which involved paddock and catchment-scale water quality monitoring.

The Centre for Tropical Water and Aquatic Ecosystem Research (TropWATER) at James Cook University collaborated with delivery providers and the Foundation's Water Quality Technical Advisory Group (TAG) to help ensure that the overall approach for water quality monitoring—including sampling design, method, equipment, data analysis, interpretation, and communication—was consistent, credible, fit-for-purpose, and met the expected standards across the RTP Water Quality Program.

Establishing a clear purpose for monitoring is the first, and perhaps most critical, step for setting up an effective monitoring program, whether it is intended to compare the effects of agricultural practices, identify issues affecting waterways, fill the needs for local awareness of land-use changes and their impacts on water quality, or support modelling calibration.

TropWATER worked with delivery partners and the TAG to provide comprehensive reviews of monitoring plans along with recommendations to elevate the quality of the design, implementation, and management through adaptive modifications. These recommendations spanned from better documentation, acknowledging the limitations of sampling approaches and providing different options for equipment, to improving communication aspects around data presentation and interpretation. 

Project Manager Matt Schembri from Sugar Research Australia said, “The interaction with TropWATER through this GBRF-funded project has been beneficial to the Mackay-Whitsundays Cane to Creek project, with positive improvements going forward in the implementation of our nutrient and pesticide management practice water quality trials.” 

Agronomist and Extension Officer Bethany Donker from Herbert Cane Productivity Services said, “I am more confident now in developing water quality monitoring in a future program, because I have more knowledge. I now know that I have people to go to, and that's probably where I'm the most confident is that I'm now connected with a network.” 

TAG representative Tony Webster from the CSIRO added, “It has been really important for regional partners to have quick and easy access to the best available knowledge and advice for their water quality monitoring activities. All credit to the regional partners for engaging with the TropWATER team so we can have the best possible outcomes for farmers and the environment.”

Project teams were further supported with training and advice to guide the development of clear, consistent, and accurate water quality narratives and communication products. Cross-regional workshops were held for project participants to share progress and learnings, discuss challenges, and receive technical advice from water quality, agronomy and communication specialists at TropWATER and from the TAG.

“Having access to the Technical Advisory Group has been really helpful. It's really refreshing every time we get together to be exposed to that expertise, it's just so valuable. They have been able to share the latest research and information with us, assist us with designing our field water quality monitoring and sampling programs and then help us interpret the results,” said Robert Sluggett, Director of Farmacist at Mackay.