A technical guide to the Periphyton Attribute Note under the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management (NPS-FM) 2014 (as amended 2017) has been released, as a draft, this month by the Ministry for the Environment.
The Periphyton Attribute Note requires regional councils to set appropriate instream concentrations and exceedance criteria for nitrogen and phosphorus to achieve periphyton objectives while ensuring the outcomes sought for sensitive receiving environments are also achieved. The Note provides a step-by-step process for councils to follow. The technical guidance explains each of the steps in the process and includes worked examples and case studies.
The guidance was prepared by a multi-disciplinary team of NIWA scientists with expertise in river, lake and estuary science. It is currently considered to be draft guidance and the Ministry for the Environment welcomes feedback on this. The guidance will be finalised in February 2019.
The draft Technical guide to the periphyton attribute note can be downloaded from the Ministry for the Environment website.
