WHY HAVE A
REPORT CARD?
WHERE DO WE FIT IN?
Report cards associated with Great Barrier Reef (GBR) catchments, waterways and marine areas inform management decisions to improve water quality and ecosystem health within these environments. They raise awareness of the Reef 2050 Water Quality Improvement Plan (Reef 2050 WQIP) and assist regional communities to understand waterway conditions and progress towards catchment management targets. They can also provide greater appreciation/understanding of the social, economic and cultural benefits that waterways provide to local communities and catchment management actions to achieve reduced pollutant loads, better water quality, restored ecosystem health and improved wellbeing.
There are distinct report cards that cover the GBR – the Reef Water Quality Report Card evaluates and reports on progress towards the Reef 2050 WQIP targets, objectives and long term outcomes on a reef-wide basis. Regional Report Cards (Wet Tropics, Townsville Dry Tropics, Mackay Whitsunday Isaac, Fitzroy and Gladstone Harbour) outline the condition of a variety of indicators for diverse ecosystems within each region.
UNDERSTANDING THE REPORT
The GHHP Report Card gives ‘school report’-style grades to different elements of the harbours health across four key categories; environmental, social, cultural and economic. A number of different indices are reported on for each category and the data used to create these grades is sourced from various government, research, industry, and citizen science programs.
The following videos provide additional information about the report card system and how the Gladstone Harbour Report Card is structured. You can also learn about all of the different indices we measure and why by clicking on the link below.