‘Environmental flow’ is the term used to describe the water needed in a river to maintain healthy natural ecosystems. In other words, it is the water needed to maintain life in and around a river.

An environmental flow regime of a river needed to satisfy specified ecological requirements. These requirements reflect the needs of animals and plants dependent on the river, its banks, floodplains and estuaries as well as the ecological processes that keep the river healthy.

Environmental flows:

• stimulate animals like native fish to feed and breed (cod and yellowbelly fish need to be able to move on to floodplains to breed and feed)
• trigger plants to seed or germinate (river red gums need flooding for seeds to germinate)
• move carbon, important for food chains, between rivers, floodplains and estuaries
• allow fish and plants to move about the river system and colonise new areas
• help restore groundwater supplies
• stabilise river banks through better vegetation growth, reducing erosion into the river
• flush out the salt along river banks and floodplains.

For more information about the importance of environmental flows, read the brochure below.

Why Rivers Need Water (PDF~1MB)