Freshwater Quality

Latest news

Putting algae to work

Feature story

15 December 2022

Can native freshwater algae help restore the mauri of local waterways? Lawrence Gullery investigates.

Taonga Species Series: Tuangi

Feature story

31 October 2022

What does science tell us about New Zealand cockles?

Satellites reveal NZ’s coastal health

Media Release

21 September 2022

For the first time, satellites have been used to track coastal water health around Aotearoa New Zealand.

Demand grows for NIWA’s Riparian Management Training

Media Release

9 June 2022

NIWA has updated and restarted a course using a riparian planning tool developed by one of its former chief scientists more than 20 years ago.

Latest videos

The SHMAK method for rubbish involves collecting and identifying all the rubbish (litter) in the stream and on the stream banks. It was designed to complement rubbish assessments on our beaches so the data is comparable.

SHMAK habitat – visual habitat assessment

The SHMAK visual habitat assessment needs no equipment, only your eyes. It gives your stream a score that you can use to assess changes over time or compare streams.

SHMAK habitat – streambed composition

There are two methods for describing streambed composition: the visual assessment method is quicker while the Wolman walk is more accurate.

SHMAK stream life – how to sort and identify your benthic macroinvertebrate sample

An ice-cream tray provides an excellent container to isolate and separate your benthic macroinvertebrates. The SHMAK Benthic Macroinvertebrate Field Guide can help you with your identifications. Posting a photo to the Freshwater Invertebrates NZ project in iNaturalist can help you identify any invertebrates you don’t recognise - https://inaturalist.nz/projects/fresh... When you enter your data into the NZ Water Citizens website - https://nzwatercitizens.co.nz/ - you can use the online calculator to calculate a health score.

Introduction to SHMAK

Most of us are visual learners. So we’ve created some short videos that demonstrate the methods outlined in SHMAK. Here, we introduce SHMAK and how to use these videos to learn the SHMAK methods.

Overview of SHMAK

How healthy is your stream? SHMAK—the New Zealand Stream Health Monitoring and Assessment Kit—has been designed to help you find out. It also allows stream health to be tracked over time, so you can recognise if stream health is getting better, worse or staying the same.

NIWA's underwater health check

Feature story

13 June 2019

At the bottom of our lakes are NIWA divers with waterproof clipboards. Sarah Fraser jumps in to find out what they’re doing.

National standards for discrete water quality sampling released

The long awaited National Environmental Monitoring Standard (NEMS) for Discrete Water Quality was released in March, contributing to the wider suite of existing Standards that collectively seek to improve national consistency in environmental monitoring.

Environmental report calls attention to the need for more research on water quality

The quality of New Zealand’s waterways features prominently in a newly released report on the state of our environment - an opinion editorial by NIWA Chief Scientist of Freshwater and Estuaries, Scott Larned.

Freshwater Update 81, June 2019

Freshwater Update 81 brings you the latest information from our Freshwater & Estuaries Centre, with articles ranging from how NIWA scientists are solving the longfin eel migration mystery, how we're taking you diving with us at Fieldays, and a word from one of the editors of the new Lakes Restoration Handbook.

Environment report a clear picture of change: NIWA

Media Release

18 April 2019

The latest state of the environment report released today provides New Zealanders with clear evidence that our climate, freshwater and marine systems are changing, says NIWA.

Aquaculture posters

The two Pelorus posters illustrated below are also available as PDF documents:

Individual instructions

Instructions for using Nalgene Storm Water Sampler bottles and DGTs.

Guidance manual

The guidance manual provides methods for sampling urban streams and stormwater

Instructional videos

Video guides for installing the Nalgene Bottles and DGT's

Scientists make break-through in saving freshwater mussels

Doctoral student, Michele Melchior, has made an important breakthrough in the effort to save New Zealand's freshwater mussels, or kākahi.

Kākahi were once a valuable food source for Māori, and they also play a crucial role as indicators of the health of waterways. All three kakahi species in New Zealand are in decline.

Scientist collects rubbish to rid river of plastics

It may be rubbish to everyone else, but to Amanda Valois each little scrap of plastic on a river bank or in a waterway tells a valuable story.

Freshwater Update 80, March 2019

Freshwater Update 80 brings you the latest information from our Freshwater & Estuaries Centre, with articles that cross a broad spectrum of freshwater research. This edition has articles about the sources of plastics in our waterways, the discovery of long-lost lake plant species and a breakthrough in research about freshwater mussels/kākahi.

Scientist collects rubbish to rid rivers of plastics

Feature story

16 January 2019

It may be rubbish to everyone else, but to Amanda Valois each little scrap of plastic on a river bank or in a waterway tells a valuable story.

Urban Runoff Quality Information System (URQIS)

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.

Looking after water in our towns and cities

The Urban Water Principles report released this month is a first step in tackling some big issues in a collaborative way.

Community project inspires scientists

A project to restore a stream catchment in Kaikōura—damaged in the 2016 earthquake—is being described as inspirational by NIWA scientists.

Reducing sedimentation

Feature story

15 October 2018

New Zealand is a land of erosion. We’re losing about 192 million tonnes of soil a year, according to the latest report Our Land 2018, from the Ministry for the Environment and Statistics NZ.

New collaborative project on productive riparian buffers

NIWA is working with DairyNZ, Regional Councils and farmers on a new project to evaluate riparian planting options that have economic as well as environmental benefits. The project is co-funded by the Sustainable Farming Fund. Read the article Research into productive riparian buffers on the DairyNZ website, or contact Dr Fleur Matheson.

‘Swimmability’ of New Zealand rivers

Swimming is a popular activity in Aotearoa-New Zealand. Two attributes of waters that strongly affect aesthetic quality and safety for swimming are visual clarity and faecal contamination. It turns out that these two attributes are fairly well-correlated (inversely) in New Zealand rivers, such that (easily seen) visual clarity provides a rough-but-useful guide to (unseen) microbial quality.

Freshwater Update 78, September 2018

Freshwater Update 78 brings you the latest information from our Freshwater & Estuaries Centre, with articles that cross a broad spectrum of freshwater research, from archives to aquifers, periphyton guidance, geo-engineering and swimmability.

Community project inspires scientists

Media Release

6 August 2018

A project to restore a stream catchment in Kaikōura—damaged in the 2016 earthquake—is being described as inspirational by NIWA scientists.

Water sensitive urban design: a concrete case

Feature story

27 June 2018

The hard concrete surfaces that characterise New Zealand towns and cities are barely likely to register as a problem with most people. But they're never far from the minds of our urban water researchers.

Use of stable isotopes in rainfall and rivers to explain pathways and speed of water movement through catchments

Stable hydrogen and oxygen isotopes in rainfall and rivers can provide a powerful tool to explain the pathways and speed of water movement through catchments.