Journal Article

The historical development of water quality studies in Australia are discussed. Particular attention is given to the growth in water quality monitoring and modelling over the last 20 years. First order predictions of the effects of some land use changes on water quality have been carried out, however, significant limitations in our predictive capacities remain. Water quality modelling has been successful in assisting engineering project evaluation and broad scale water resource catchment planning. However, we currently cannot predict the effects of new land management strategies on water quality. While the new microelectronics era provides scope for more efficient data collection and analysis, continued reductions of resources in the water industry will seriously affect our ability to adequately tackle growing water quality problems.