This target will protect and enhance riverine ecosystems across the ACT. Urban and rural waterways and ponds potentially provide ecological services (e.g. habitat and water quality) to the surrounding land. Rural and urban development may lead to loss of health and capacity unless intervention based on sound ecological and planning principles is undertaken.

Run-off from urban areas is probably as much as 13 GL more today than under previously rural land use. It contains significantly more pollutants (hydrocarbons, pesticides, nitrogen, phosphorus, salt and bacteria) and soil from erosion from building and development sites. Most, but not all, city drainages employ some sort of filter system to remove some of the pollutants before the water reaches an open river.

This target measures outcomes using physical and chemical methods (e.g. turbidity, oxygen concentration, nitrate concentration), and by scoring according to the AUSRIVAS method of monitoring water quality. AUSRIVAS monitors aquatic macroinvertebrates as a more integrative method of assessing the impact of water quality and habitat condition. Sites are given scores of A (good) to D (severely impaired). In the ACT the average score over the last four years was about half way between a B and a C.

The target recognises that heavy rain often results in water quality standards being exceeded for a short time. The number of times the standard is exceeded should decrease as a result of improvements in catchment health.