Motupipi Catchment Automated Water Quality Recorder 

In November 2006 an automatic recording site was set up on the Reilly property in the Motupipi catchment. The purpose of this site is to better understand trends in water quality and to determine any daily, seasonal, rainfall-derived or other pattern in water quality.

Tasman District Council samples the Motupipi River quarterly during stable base flows as part of the State of Environment monitoring programme. This continuous river monitoring provides invaluable information to better interpret the response and effects to events such as rain. Data is monitored every 15 minutes.

Motupipi Air Temperature 

Measuring Air Temperature provides useful background information and cheap to measure.

Back to Top

Motupipi Conductivity 

Conductivity is measured as a surrogate for nutrients as nutrients cannot be measured continuously. High conductivity is mostly likely to mean high nutrient concentration at this site.

Back to Top

Motupipi Dissolved Oxygen 

Dissolved Oxygen - Without sufficient oxygen aquatic animals will not survive. Oxygen concentrations in the Motupipi River during summer and autumn get very low. Dissolved oxygen is lowest in the early morning so must be measured at least 2-4 times each hour.

Back to Top

Motupipi River Flow 

River Flow is used in conjunction with contaminant concentration data to provide total quantities (load) of a contaminant flowing past the site. It is also useful to determine whether there are certain flows that are producing the greatest contamination.

Back to Top

Motupipi Rainfall 

Rainfall is used for farm management. Along with soil moisture, rainfall data can be used to develop run-off models for the catchment.

Back to Top

Motupipi Solar Radiation 

Solar Radiation is important when determining the rate of plant growth (metabolism) in the waterway.

Back to Top

Motupipi Turbidity 

Turbidity is how murky the water is. This data can be used to calculate how much sediment is getting into the waterway and how clear the water is.

Back to Top

Motupipi Water Temperature 

Water Temperature has not been found to be an issue in this waterway but it is cheap and efficient to measure.It is also useful for modeling, such as dissolved oxygen effects.

Back to Top

Map of Site Location 

Back to Top

Disclaimer 

Tasman District Council has exercised all reasonable skill and care in collecting and displaying this information. However, the data is provisional, and may be incorrect until checked by staff. Data should be used with caution where there are safety, monetary, or operational consequences if the data is incorrect. Note also, the data may be changed at a later time.