What is a catchment?
A catchment is an area of land from which rainwater drains into a reservoir, river, lake, estuary or ocean.
Colac is part of the Corangamite catchment, stretching between Geelong, Ballarat and Peterborough.
Corangamite Catchment Management Authority works with the community to create a healthier catchment by protecting and restoring our rivers, creeks, lakes, wetlands and estuaries.
What do CMAs do?
The assessment and reporting on catchment condition is a prime function of Catchment Management Authorities.
This has however been difficult to achieve as a consistently acceptable set of indicators is yet to be adopted through cross agency agreement within Victoria.
The Corangamite CMA is pursuing this objective primarily through the Index of Stream Condition monitoring program and through the Catchment Activity Management System.
Further, in the development of our draft Salinity, River Health and Native Vegetation plans we have established benchmarks to resource condition that will be useful in future reporting.
Salinity
Primary salinity is salts within soils that existed under natural conditions before European settlement.
Secondary salinity appears where salts have accumulated in soil as a result of a change in the environment (land clearing) since European settlement.
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