Regional Water Monitoring Partnerships

Vision of the Partnerships

• To provide fit-for-purpose, high quality water resource data that is the basis of informed decision-making

• For the Partnerships’ structure to promote sustainability of data quality and support for on-going investment in this data

About the Regional Water Monitoring Partnerships

The Regional Water Monitoring Partnerships (RWMPs) consist of 44 public and private organisations that have joined together to collectively contract surface water monitoring services, reducing the disparate and often inefficient cost of monitoring by individual organisations.

The Partnerships commenced in 2001 with the formation of the Gippsland Regional Water Monitoring Partnership. The model was extended in 2004 with the formation of the remaining Partnerships across Victoria to cover the North East, North West and South West regions.

The Department of Environment and Primary Industries acts as both a partner and contract manager for the Partnerships, and procures the surface water monitoring services on behalf of the Partners.

The members of each Partnership have entered into legal agreements to share data, monitoring costs and management of the monitoring contracts.

The agreements outline how the Partners share the monitoring (including operation and maintenance, water quality data collection and delivery, and water quality analysis requirements) for sites in which they have an interest.

Currently, there are approximately 770 surface water monitoring sites covered under the Partnerships.

Information gathered through monitoring enables these organisations to make more informed water resource management decisions by providing answers to the following questions:

• How much water is there?
• Where is the water?
• What is the quality of the water?
• How much water is being used?
• What is the water being used for?

Benefits of the Partnerships

• Consistent and reliable data
• Reduced data uncertainty
• A coordinated data collection approach
• Sharing of knowledge and data between Partners
• Single consolidated data submission to the
• Bureau of Meteorology for Victoria
• Audited methodologies and service standards
• Cost sharing opportunities at monitoring sites
• Centralised contract management and procurement
• Reduced administrative expenses
• Clear quarterly invoicing
• Operation and maintenance assistance
• Management and OH&S support
• Knowledge and assistance available from a
• Regional Coordinator

Organisations that are currently not part of the Partnership can become involved at any time by approaching the Partnership for approval to join.