Gosford City Council Historical Water Quality Review & Analysis

RESULTS OF WATER QUALITY DATA ANALYSIS 3-1
3 RESULTS OF WATER QUALITY DATA ANALYSIS
3.1 Contemporary Water Quality Results
The most recent water quality monitoring carried out in Gosford LGA was undertaken by Assoc.
Prof. Dominic Cheng of Ecoscience Technology (University of Technology, Sydney). Monitoring
was carried out at ten (10) sites within Brisbane Water and the coastal lagoons, as identified in Figure
3.1. Monitoring was on a monthly basis between August 1999 and June 2002. Details of the
monitoring results are found in Ecoscience Technology (2002). The general results of this
monitoring program are described in the Sections below. The results have been obtained using the
yearly and quarterly reporting tools of GWQ, as described in Section 2.3. Analysis is thus
provided for annual comparisons for the entire dataset, and for quarterly comparisons over the last 12
month period (2001 / 2002). Median values for annual results have been reported to reflect a more
‘typical’ value within the waterways, whereas mean values are reported for the quarterly results given
the lack of statistical data (i.e. generally only three records per quarter).
The quarterly results are slighted skewed by the fact that the Jan – Mar 2002 period contained only
one record (other quarters contained either three or four records). Therefore, care should be taken
when interpreting the results. This problem highlights the importance of consistent data collection
throughout the monitoring period.
Figure 3.1 Sites for Most Recent (Cheng) Water Quality Monitoring Program
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