i Contents Acknowledgement of Country ..................................................................................... 1 Contributors ............................................................................................................... 1 Executive Summary .................................................................................................... 2 Abbreviations ............................................................................................................. 4 1 Introduction ................................................................................................... 5 1.1 Purpose ............................................................................................................ 5 1.2 Navigating the Resource Document ...................................................................... 8 1.3 Collaborative design approach ............................................................................. 9 1.4 Scope of the Strategy ....................................................................................... 11 1.5 Overview of the Values and target setting approach .............................................. 18 1.6 References ....................................................................................................... 27 2 River Values ................................................................................................. 30 2.1 Vegetation ....................................................................................................... 31 2.2 Riparian Birds .................................................................................................. 41 2.3 Frogs .............................................................................................................. 53 2.4 Platypus, fish and macroinvertebrates ................................................................. 65 2.5 Amenity, Community Connection and Recreation .................................................. 87 3 Condition metrics for rivers ........................................................................ 106 3.1 Stormwater.................................................................................................... 106 3.2 Water for the Environment ............................................................................... 117 3.3 Vegetation Extent ........................................................................................... 130 3.4 Vegetation Quality .......................................................................................... 137 3.5 Water Quality – Environmental ......................................................................... 139 3.6 Instream Connectivity ..................................................................................... 155 3.7 Physical Form ................................................................................................. 162 3.8 Access ........................................................................................................... 171 3.9 Water Quality - Recreational ............................................................................ 174 3.10 Litter ............................................................................................................. 178 3.11 Participation ................................................................................................... 181 ii 4 Estuarine values ......................................................................................... 186 4.1 Introduction ................................................................................................... 186 4.2 Key threats for estuarine values ....................................................................... 189 4.3 Birds ............................................................................................................. 193 4.4 Fish .............................................................................................................. 198 4.5 Vegetation ..................................................................................................... 203 4.6 Amenity, Community Connection and Recreation ................................................ 208 5 Condition metrics for estuaries ................................................................... 215 5.1 Introduction ................................................................................................... 215 5.2 Flow regime ................................................................................................... 215 5.3 Tidal exchange ............................................................................................... 218 5.4 Longitudinal extent ......................................................................................... 220 5.5 Estuarine Vegetation ....................................................................................... 223 5.6 Estuarine wetland connectivity ......................................................................... 226 5.7 Water Quality ................................................................................................. 228 6 Wetland values ........................................................................................... 233 6.1 Introduction ................................................................................................... 233 6.2 Key threats to wetlands ................................................................................... 242 6.3 Vegetation ..................................................................................................... 247 6.4 Birds ............................................................................................................. 253 6.5 Frogs ............................................................................................................ 258 6.6 Fish .............................................................................................................. 263 6.7 Amenity, Recreation and Community Connection ................................................ 266 7 Condition metrics for wetlands ................................................................... 268 7.1 Introduction ................................................................................................... 268 7.2 Water regime ................................................................................................. 268 7.3 Wetland habitat form ...................................................................................... 271 7.4 Wetland buffer ............................................................................................... 273 7.5 Vegetation ..................................................................................................... 277 7.6 Water quality ................................................................................................. 280 8 Benefits to Bays .......................................................................................... 284 8.1 Introduction ................................................................................................... 284 8.2 Bay-related Performance Objectives .................................................................. 285 iii 8.3 Key assumptions and improvement opportunities ............................................... 287 8.4 References ..................................................................................................... 287 9 Links to other strategies, plans and guidelines ........................................... 289 9.1 Yarra Strategic Plan ........................................................................................ 289 9.2 Waterways of the West.................................................................................... 289 9.3 IWM forums ................................................................................................... 290 9.4 SEPP ............................................................................................................. 291 Appendix 1 – List of lead authors ........................................................................... 292 Appendix 2 - Summary of key value metrics ........................................................... 293 Appendix 3 – Summary of condition metrics .......................................................... 296 Appendix 4 - Habitat Suitability model scenarios explored in the HWS development 300 Appendix 5 - Development of unit costs for zonation analysis ................................ 303 Appendix 6 - Overview of zonation application ....................................................... 306 Appendix 7 - impervious fraction for zone codes used for predicting ultimate urban development........................................................................................................... 311 List of Figures and Tables Figure 1. Healthy Waterways Strategy document library. The Resource Document is part of a suite of resources that support the development, implementation and monitoring and evaluation of the strategy. ............................................................... 7 Figure 2. Diagram of HWS 2018 development approach ............................................. 9 Figure 3. Alignment of collective knowledge and science produced the targets and performance objectives ........................................................................................ 10 Figure 4. The geographical scope of HWS 2018 ....................................................... 11 Figure