Estuary monitoring is undertaken by most councils in New Zealand as part of their State of the Environment programmes. To support this monitoring, the Ministry funded the development of a National Estuary Monitoring Protocol (NEMP) in 2002.
Estuary monitoring is undertaken by most councils in New Zealand as part of their State of the Environment programmes. To support this monitoring, the Ministry funded the development of a National Estuary Monitoring Protocol (NEMP) in 2002.
The NEMP proposed standard methods that regional councils and unitary authorities could use to assess and monitor the state of, and trends in, the ecological health of New Zealand estuaries.
There are three key components to the NEMP:
- a decision matrix to select priority estuaries for monitoring
- methods describing broad-scale mapping of intertidal estuarine habitats
- methods describing fine-scale monitoring of estuary biota and sediment quality.
Although the NEMP is not mandatory, most councils in New Zealand have used it to inform their estuary monitoring programmes.
An update to the NEMP is underway and is expected to be published in 2025.
Documents
NEMP 2002 Part A [pdf]
NEMP 2002 Part B [pdf]
NEMP 2002 Part C [pdf]
NEMP 2002 Fieldguide [pdf]