FLOWS Assessed River Reaches for Environmental Water Requirements in Victoria

The FLOWS method, developed in 2002 by SKM, the Cooperative Research Centre for Freshwater Ecology, Freshwater Ecology (NRE), and Lloyd Environmental Consultants, determines environmental water requirements for rivers and streams in Victoria, Australia. It is used for Stream Flow Management Plans and Bulk Entitlements to assess instream and overbank flow needs. The dataset is provided by the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action and was last updated on 2026-04 09.

Use Cases

• Modeling environmental water requirements for rivers based on the FLOWS methodology described.
• Planning Stream Flow Management Plans based on assessed instream flow needs.
• Informing Bulk Entitlement decisions based on overbank flow requirements for floodplain wetting.
• Spatial analysis of river reaches with defined environmental water needs in Victoria.

Strengths

• Based on the established FLOWS methodology developed by multiple research and consulting entities in 2002.
• Data is provided in multiple geospatial formats (DWG, WMS, GDB, SHP, WFS, MIF, DXF, EXTENDED TAB, TAB) for flexibility.
• Licensed under CC-BY-4.0, allowing for broad reuse with attribution.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The method is not applicable to watering regimes for large wetlands or estuaries, limiting its scope.

Provenance

Source

Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action

Collection Method

Assessed using the FLOWS method developed by SKM, the Cooperative Research Centre for Freshwater Ecology, Freshwater Ecology (NRE), and Lloyd Environmental Consultants.

Time Range

Method developed in 2002; dataset update indicates ongoing application.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-09 06:43:39.956187; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Rivers and streams in Victoria, Australia.