Measuring the outputs of most natural resource management programs is relatively straightforward: the length of fencing, number of systems inspected, number of acres treated.  Increasingly however, organisations are trying to measure the intermediate and goal outcomes of their activities. 

The Sydney Catchment Authority (SCA) has been working with landowners to protect and improve the management of riparian areas along waterways, with a specific focus on water quality.  Three methods are being used and developed to capture the contribution each landowner project is making to outputs and outcomes.

The Land Management Database (LMDB) is used to capture outputs such as the location of fencing, water supplies for stock, native vegetation, erosion control and stock crossings.  All activities are attributed in GIS as points, lines and polygons, and tagged with the specific outputs eg. stock access controlled to riparian area.

A method called Grants Evaluation and Monitoring (GEM) is used to capture intermediate outcomes.  Six conditions of riparian management are assessed in the field including stock access, groundcover, groundwater flow, stream bank stability, gully stability and native vegetation.  The unique combination of conditions enables a determination of water quality risk of each site, before and after project work.

A model is being developed to quantify the reduction of pathogen pollution from the proposed activities in each project.  The model integrates the factors of availability, mobilisation and transport, and field studies are helping to validate and calibrate the model.

Together these methods offer flexible reporting options. High level reporting eg. ‘the risk to water quality from stock access was reduced along 32 kilometres of waterway from very high to low’. Or specific project reporting which offers detailed information about each site.  They are simple structures for reliably, consistently and economically capturing the information that matters.