HEVAE Instream Value NSW: River Reach Ecological Scores

A 2024 spatial dataset from the NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water assessing the ecological value of river reaches. It combines scores for naturalness, diversity, distinctiveness, and vital habitat into a standardized index from 0 to 1 for each River Style reach. The distinctiveness criterion was updated in 2018 using predicted threatened fish species distribution data.

Use Cases

• Prioritizing river conservation efforts based on combined ecological value scores.
• Analyzing spatial patterns of aquatic ecosystem naturalness, diversity, distinctiveness, and vital habitat.
• Modeling the impact of land use or climate change on standardized river health indices.
• Assessing the distribution of high-value aquatic habitats relative to threatened fish species.

Strengths

• Scores are standardized on a 0 to 1 scale, enabling cross-catchment comparison.
• Integrates four distinct ecological criteria (naturalness, diversity, distinctiveness, vital habitat) into a composite index.
• Distinctiveness criterion was updated in 2018 with modeled threatened fish species data.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Freshness should be verified as the last metadata update was 2026-05-23.

Provenance

Source

NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water (DCCEEW Water)

Collection Method

Calculated by adding final scores for each HEVAE criterion per River Style reach and standardizing by the catchment maximum.

Freshness

Data currency listed as 28/08/2024.

Geography

New South Wales, Australia