June 2005
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Visualising land and sea connections
Townsville artists, designers and scientists have created a new poster and booklet to illustrate how catchment activities affect streams, rivers and wetlands. The poster explores the ways that land-use in water catchments can have flow-on effects in the ocean, and shows the need to look after the Reef by caring for catchments. Developed as part of CRC Reef and Rainforest CRC’s joint Catchment to Reef Project, the poster depicts a typical segment of the Great Barrier Reef coastline - with urban areas, forests, wetlands and estuaries - during a time of flood. Water moves off the landscape through streams and wetlands, via underground seeps and over floodplains, into estuaries and the sea. If any part of this connection changes, there can be significant implications downstream. Urban, industrial and agricultural development has changed catchments since European settlement. Vegetation has been cleared for towns and farms, rivers have been dammed and barrages constructed to control tides and flooding. “It’s important for all of us to recognise how we affect the catchments where we live,” says Catchment to Reef Project Leader Dr Richard Pearson. “Minimising our impacts on the natural environment is vital to keep rivers and reefs healthy.” The poster ‘Catchment to Reef: connections between land and sea’ will be available from CRC Reef, Rainforest CRC, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and NRM Regional Planning bodies. For more information, visit www.reef.crc.org.au/research/catchment_to_reef or contact Dr Richard Pearson, James Cook University, richard.pearson@jcu.edu.au |
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PO Box 772 Townsville
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