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7. Natural Resources and Ecological Services
Urban development in the Study Area has, and will continue to have an impact on the presence and
condition of natural resources, including coast, water, land and biodiversity assets. The need to protect
these assets is identified in various Council plans, including the City of Port Adelaide Enfield’s
Environment Strategy
and the City of Charles Sturt’s
Towards One Planet Living: Greening the Western
Suburbs.
Climate change is recognised in many of these documents as one of several threats to the natural
resources of the region. This section provides a summary of the Region’s natural resources, under the
headings:
x
Water Resources
x
Biodiversity
x
Coast and Estuaries
x
Groundwater
For each section, the natural resource assets are identified, their location in the Region, a brief summary
of their status describing their overall condition compared to a natural, undisturbed condition, the values
these assets provide and threats to these assets. This section has been prepared using existing reports
and data provided by the Councils and stakeholders.
Stormwater and flooding are described separately in Section 12. Additional information on potential
climate change effects on the coast are described in Section 5.
7.1.
Water Resources
The water resources of the Region include several major watercourses which flow west to Gulf St
Vincent, and north to the Barker Inlet. In general the watercourses have been highly modified from their
natural state, having been deepened, widened and their course altered as a result of urban development
and subsequent increased catchment runoff. Constructed wetlands in the Region treat urban stormwater,
and provide water quality and biodiversity benefits. In particular, the Barker Inlet wetland system
(constructed wetlands) treats stormwater, which then discharges to North Arm Creek before flowing into
the Barker Inlet Aquatic Reserve (see Section 7.3 Coast and Estuaries). In recent years, several
wetlands have been constructed as part of Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) schemes (see also Section
12). The key water resource assets of the region are described in
Table 7.1
. Further information on the
catchments is provided in Section 12.
The State NRM Plan (Government of SA, 2012) notes the Aboriginal peoples’ connection to land and
waters across South Australia through the sharing of stories and a responsibility for protecting important
places of cultural and spiritual significance. There are numerous places of Aboriginal significance
associated with the water resources of the region. Pullen (2006, cited in City of Port Adelaide Enfield,
2007) notes the significance of the mouths (‘outwash’) of the Torrens and Sturt Rivers to the Kaurna
people.
