Year: 2004 - ongoing
Since 2004, WRL has been working in collaboration with the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Services (NPWS) and the Department of Primary Industries (NSW Fisheries) to transform the Tomago Wetlands site from a large acidic landscape into a restored productive tidal wetland. The wetland is being created to compensate for migratory wading bird habitat destroyed elsewhere in the lower Hunter River estuary.
The specific challenge faced by the Tomago Wetland RestorationÌýProject was to design and build a system that would naturally encourage saltmarsh regeneration, an ecological community in serious decline in NSW. Saltmarsh requires very specific hydrological and water quality conditions. The engineering challenge was to deliver the right volume of water, to the right place, at the right depth, at the right time and at the right salinity to allow nature to flourish and generate saltmarsh.
The engineering design and assessment approach applied to research, planning and on-ground solutions at Tomago Wetland sets a new standard in engineering practice and has been highly successful. To find out more about this project see Tomago Wetland restoration project.
Monitoring program
In 2009 WRL installed a remote camera station which has been recording the progress of restoration at Tomago Wetlands.ÌýAs of July 2022, WRL has upgraded thisÌýmonitoring networkÌýto include real-time water level and salinityÌýmeasurements. A new wide-angle camera hasÌýreplaced the existing camera to monitor the wetland restoration and two new cameras have also been installed toÌýmonitor the automatedÌýfloodgates which control tidal flow into and out of the wetland. ThisÌýmonitoringÌýnetwork is designed to support NPWS in the ongoing management of the important wetland ecosystemÌývalues provided by the Tomago Wetlands.Ìý
Telemetered monitoring stations installed across the siteÌýinclude:
- Seven stations measuring water level
- Four stations measuring salinity
- Three camera stations
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Monitoring station map
Wetlands wide-angle camera images
- Controlled data
- Acknowledgements
- Disclaimer
- For further information
Note: Access to some monitoring data throughout Tomago is controlled. .
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This project was funded by the NSW Department of Planning and Environment - National Parks and Wildlife Service.
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Please note that data presented on this page includes real-time measurements sent directly from field stations. Subsequently, this data has not been quality controlled and may contain errors. Please contact WRL directly should you have any queries regarding this data and the suitability of its use.
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