Stream Health Monitoring and Assessment Kit

How healthy is your stream? SHMAK - the New Zealand Stream Health Monitoring and Assessment Kit - has been designed to help you find out.

NIWA’s Stream Health Monitoring Assessment Kit (SHMAK) gives land owners, iwi, school and community groups simple, scientifically-sound tools and resources to monitor the ecological health of New Zealand’s streams.

If you would like to order a kit please download the Order Form (PDF 213.66 KB) and email it to [email protected].

Overview of SHMAK

An overview of what the SHMAK kit comprises, and various uses for it.

SHMAK Manual

Download the entire manual or just the chapters you need. A printed version is also available.

SHMAK videos

We've developed a series of instructional videos on what SHMAK is and how to use it

Identification and e-guides

Downloadable and printable guides on identification of common freshwater invertebrates found in New Zealand waterways and lakes.

NZ Water Citizens Database

NZ Water Citizens is a landing page for anyone in New Zealand interested in volunteer stream monitoring.

Resources and References

Links to related resources and websites

Quality assurance for community-based monitoring

Work is underway to develop a proposed national quality assurance (QA) framework for community-based monitoring (CBM) of Aotearoa New Zealand’s freshwaters.

Members of the Silverstream Restoration Group (Upper Hutt) monitoring the type and amount of periphyton (algae) growing in the Mawaihakona Stream. [Allen Sheppard]

Poor water quality compounds stream straightening. [NIWA]

NIWA