The process of developing Online Guidelines from the published tables and information has
involved integrating all the substances and stressors on the lists for various
Environmental Values into a single database.
After resolving name differences and some errors this has produced are a total of
676 individual stressors, toxicants and contaminants. Details about the lists are shown
on the next two pages. As an example lists are provided for Recreation, Irrigation and
Drinking Water, with several categories of guidelines provided for each one (e.g for
recreation the categories are:- primary contact, secondary contact and aesthetics).
The data therefore consists of a table for 676 parameter names for each of the
28 Environmental Value lists.
A separate web page is provided for each of these Environmental Value lists.
Only those parameters for which there are guidelines specified are included on the
web page for each list (for example there are only four parameters on the list for
'General Water Use - Corrosion' i.e. Calcium, Chloride, Langelier Index, Ryznar Index,
and pH. You can easily scan through to see what stressors, toxicants and contaminants
have guideline values specified on that list.
Five summary web pages are also been provided that displays all the guideline values
for all the parameters and all the Environmental Values lists on a single page to allow
easy comparisons.
There is one for each of the Regions specified for the physical and chemical stressors,
which differ in the various regions (i.e. South-east Australia, South-west Australia,
South-central Australia, Tropical Australia and New Zealand).
A search tool is provided for each web page and list. Searching is likely to be much
more efficient on the specific page, than on the pages that display all the guidelines,
because the parameters displayed will be greatly reduced.
The 'Main' navigation page provides the entry point for finding the guideline values
you require and accessing the environmental value list that you nominate.
It has two entry points:
=> Search for stressors, toxicants and contaminants the choose Environmental
Value and nominate the Region and Ecosystem.
=> By-pass the search for stressors etc. and proceed directly to the
environmental value list after nominating the Region and Ecosystem.
Although the nomination of the Region and Ecosystem type is only required for
physico-chemical stressors (for which there are separate lists), all other guidelines
applying nationally, this nomination must be made for BOTH options.
This is required to ensure that the correctly information will be provided to you for
making comparisons between guidelines. For example, while at the start of a session you
may be interested in the guidelines for pH (low value) for Recreation, you may later
want to compare the value nominated of > pH 5.0 with that nominated for ecosystem
protection in the physico-chemical guideline lists. The values specified are different
for various regions ecosystems throughout Australia and New Zealand.
Alphabetical Listings and the Use of Prefixes to group like Parameters
The guidelines are listed alphabetically in the database and the web page lists. To help
users quickly find the stressor, toxicant or contaminant they require, a search tool and
'preview window have been added to each page. Strictly alphabetical listings would not
put Ammonia (NH3) and Total Nitrogen(N) adjacent on the list. The same thing applies
for many other parameters. This 'grouping' has been done using prefixes for the parameter
names.
For example all the nitrogen compounds are grouped under the prefix 'Nitrogen'
i.e. Nitrogen-Ammonia, Nitrogen - Total Ammonia Nitrogen etc. The idea is to have the
search display a range of closely related compounds. Let's say a user is interested in
Total Nitrogen - and enters 'Nitrogen'. When this is done - the preview window will display
the first 'Nitrogen' compound in the centre of the preview window - i.e. 'Nitrogen-Ammonia'
and four other 'Nitrogen' compounds will appear below it. This will serve notice to the
user that there are many nitrogen compounds from which to choose.
(If the search is done within one of the lists - say PC stressors - The choice of
parameters for that specific list will be displayed. i.e. TAN, oxides of N, and TN)).
The concept is to always present the range of options to the user. All forms of Nitrogen
relevant for each list will be displayed and can be selected by clicking in the Preview
Window.
Similar prefixes are used to group chemical compounds of similar type
- for example 'acetonitrile', anilines.
In some cases the groupings may not be as obvious, but nevertheless important.
There are many different ways in which the physical appearance of water is dealt with
for the various environmental values - for example as 'Turbidity', 'Clarity',
'Colour and Appearance of Water', Natural Reflectance, Surface Films, Suspended Solids,
'True Colour', etc. The prefix 'Physical" has been used to group these parameters to help
see what is available and to choose that which best suits their needs.
Preliminary Hints for Searches
Some parameter names create search problems. The search tool will find a whole name
or part of a name that matches the expression entered. For example entering
"Nitrog" or "Nitrogen" will find 'Nitrogen - Ammonia', or one of the other
compounds listed first in the list. The search ignores case and include the prefixes as
well as the parameter names. You can search 'again' and again until you find what you want.
Certain parameter names such as 'pH' creates problems. 'pH' occurs last in alphabetical
listing, because all other parameters start with a capital letter.
However if you enter 'pH' to search for it you will get all the words in the list that
start with 'ph' or 'Ph'. The way around this is to enter 'pH ' i.e. 'pH' followed by
a 'space'.
Changes made to Help with Comparisons
Certain changes have been made to ensure that the comparisons between the guideline values
for the various environmental value lists can be made on the same basis in terms of units
and whether the whole compound or one of its components is referred to. For example
if a compound occurs in one list expressed as milli g/L and in another list as micro g/L,
the comparison will be easily confused. The same applies to salinity expressed as mg/L in
one list and as conductivity units micro Siemens/ cm or deci Siemens/ cm in other lists.
As far as possible adjustments have been made to the standard unit of micro g/ L for most
parameters and to micro Siemens/ cm for salinity (using the standard conversion).
Page number references have been provided for all parameters and users are encouraged to
check the published guidelines before applying the values listed.
Another issue concerns the expression of concentrations for the entire compound or for
one of its elements. For example in some of the published guideline lists the units
used for Nitrate (NO3) are 'g/ L' and in others 'g N/L' (i.e. only the N part). In these cases
all compounds have been converted to include all elements - i.e. all nitrate references
are to NO3. If only part of the compound is still displayed this is explicitly stated in
the units. For example Oxides of Nitrogen, which is a parameter used for physical and
chemical stressors, includes both NO2 and NO3 and the units are expressed as 'g N/L'.