High Ecological Value Aquatic Ecosystem (HEVAE) Instream Value of freshwater rivers in NSW

Polyline features define freshwater riverine instream value across New South Wales, Australia. The dataset was produced by the NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water using a four-criteria framework adapted from the Commonwealth HEVAE Framework. It was last updated on 2026-05-13.

Use Cases

• Prioritize areas for focused water management based on instream value scores.
• Inform water sharing rules and trade assessments within Water Sharing Plans based on river reach data.
• Identify specific ecological values, such as threatened fish species, influencing overall HEVAE scores.

Strengths

• Based on a nationally adopted four-criteria framework (diversity, distinctiveness, naturalness, vital habitat).
• Spatial mapping outputs are derived at the river reach scale for consistent analysis.
• License is CC-BY-4.0, facilitating open use and sharing.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Vital habitat data was not determined for coastal assessments due to lack of suitable data.

Provenance

Source

NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water

Collection Method

Spatial mapping derived from state-wide or regional instream value data, adapted from the Commonwealth HEVAE Framework.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-13 06:31:17.058497; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Freshwater river reaches in New South Wales, Australia.