Freshwater and Estuaries

Robust science is critical in the sustainable management of our precious freshwater resources and estuarine environments.

The National Centre for Freshwater and Estuaries provides public information on river, lake, and groundwater conditions across New Zealand including water quantity and quality. It also acts as a distribution point for new technology and management tools for water-related issues.

Freshwater and Estuaries services

Our goal is to bridge the gap between science and the community in the field of freshwater resources, by providing science, technology and resource management services to New Zealand.

Freshwater and Estuaries management tools

Some of the useful methods, guidelines and modelling tools we've developed to assist with management of freshwaters.

Feature: Stepping into the river

11 June 2017
NIWA discusses, in depth, this year's most asked question—what is happening to our fresh waterways?

Raising the bar for swimmable rivers

20 June 2017
The government recently released the ‘Clean Water’ package of proposed reforms, aimed at making more of our rivers swimmable. But how is ‘swimmable’ to be measured, and do these measures stack up?

Q&A: Another way to measure river health

20 June 2017
There’s another way of measuring the health of rivers – the health of invertebrate populations that need them, says John Quinn, NIWA Chief Scientist, Freshwater and Estuaries.

Causes and effects of water quality degradation

Understanding and predicting the sources of contaminants, developing technologies to clean up the sources, and understanding the consequences of water quality degradation for aquatic ecosystems and human use of waterways.

Algae ID guides

A collection of ID guides to algae. Groups include major freshwater algal groups, diatoms and blue-green (cyanobacteria), red and green algae.

News