Interventions are on-ground actions undertaken to protect or improve the condition of a waterway or address a threat to waterway values. A review of intervention techniques was undertaken as part of Melbourne Water’s Healthy Waterways Strategy (HWS) mid-term review process to document the range of interventions applied as part of HWS implementation and investigate which ones to continue, improve, do more of, or stop implementing.
In total, 81 intervention techniques were reviewed using over 120 technical reports and published papers to inform the stocktake, drawing on 20 years of research and monitoring undertaken through the Melbourne Water Research Practice Partnerships and other relevant research programs undertaken in the region. Standards were developed to guide the synthesis of information and evaluation of intervention techniques regarding the extent of intervention use in the region, level of effectiveness in meeting the objectives for HWS and level of appropriateness for application in waterways in the region.
While many interventions were commonly reported as partially effective or having mixed results, over half of the intervention techniques reviewed were found to be sufficiently effective and appropriate to continue their application. The remaining interventions were categorised with the potential for improvements (n=11), interventions that have been trialled but could be more widely adopted (n=14) and interventions with evidence of limited effectiveness or appropriateness (n=2).
Waterway managers can apply broad lessons from the intervention stocktake to ensure the benefits of existing interventions are maximised and consider the application of new and emerging intervention techniques.