Stream Health Monitoring and Assessment Kit (SHMAK)

SHMAK has been developed to help non-scientists – from farmers to school children – collect and analyse key indicators of stream health. More details.

LakeSPI for Monitoring New Zealand Lakes

LakeSPI (pronounced ‘Lake Spy’) provides a quick and cost-effective tool for monitoring lake condition by assessing carefully selected features of the submerged plant communities.

To learn more see Water Resource Management Tools.

Fish Risk Assessment Model

FRAM is powerful and simple to use. A series of straight-forward questions about the biology and behaviour of any alien species lead to it being ranked and categorised as a high, intermediate, or low ecological risk. This indicates, for example, whether a proposed aquarium introduction is likely to meet an outright ‘no’ from the authorities, or the level of environmental impact assessment that may be needed.

A questionnaire is provided (see below) with questions listed under two sections: Establishment Risk and Impact Risk. The questions in each section are scored according to the options provided in the right hand columns. The total score for each section is then calculated and, together with the overall score, used in the Decision Support System (see below) to assess the overall risk of an exotic fish impacting New Zealand's freshwater ecosystems or biodiversity.

• Fish Risk Assessment Model Report
• Fish Risk Assessment Model Questionnaire
• Fish Risk Assessment Model Decision Support System Diagram