Freshwater

Maintaining good water quality is important for healthy ecosystems and healthy humans. NIWA are experts in providing and servicing the water quality monitoring equipment you need to effectively monitor water quality in lakes, streams, coastal waters and estuaries.

NIWA's Urban Runoff Quality Information System (URQIS) provides planners, engineers and researchers with information about the quality of stormwater from different locations and landuses and under different flow conditions.

The New Zealand Freshwater Fish Database (NZFFD) contains over 50,000 freshwater fish observations from across New Zealand from 1901 to the present.

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.

NIWA is active in a broad range of eDNA topics and can provide expert advice on applications and expected outcomes.

Report: Trends analysis for selected indicators of Waikato River health and wellbeing 2010-2019

Blooms of hazardous cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) in rivers, lakes and reservoirs can cause problems for both animal and human health.

NIWA offers a range of standard toxicity tests for both freshwater and marine environments.

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

To prepare for changes in climate, our freshwater and oceans decision-makers need information on species vulnerability to climate change.

The condition of many NZ lakes is under threat from land-use changes and the invasion of alien aquatic plants.

Our biosecurity management tools include: assessment models, field surveys, management advice and the testing of control methods.