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Monitoring water clarity and turbidity in rivers

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educational resource
posted on 2024-08-26, 02:05 authored by Traverse Environmental

Water clarity and turbidity are commonly used measures of optical water quality. Water clarity (also referred to as visual clarity) is the ability of light to travel through water. Turbidity is a measure of the amount of light scattered by suspended particles (such as clay, silt, algae and other particulate material) and is often referred to as water ‘cloudiness’ or ‘haziness’. 

Water clarity may be reduced, and turbidity increased, when there is an increased amount of suspended sediment in the water. Poor water clarity can adversely affect the habitat and food supply of aquatic life, such as fish and aquatic birds, and the growth of aquatic plants; it can also impact aesthetic values and recreational use of rivers and streams. 

Measures of optical water quality – water clarity and turbidity – are useful in monitoring programmes for detecting the effect of environmental mitigation actions designed to reduce sediment in waterways.

Funding

Funded by the New Zealand Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment’s Our Land and Water National Science Challenge (Toitū te Whenua, Toiora te Wai), as part of the project Monitoring Freshwater Improvement Actions

History

Publication date

2024-05-16

Project number

  • Non revenue

Language

  • English

Does this contain Māori information or data?

  • No

Publisher

Our Land and Water

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