Appendix 1 – Wetland Habitat Classifications

The criteria for determining nationally important wetlands in Australia, and hence their eligibility for inclusion in the Directory, are those agreed to by the ANZECC Wetlands Network in 1994.

Application of the criteria to individual wetland sites involves a degree of subjectivity. Not only may certain aspects of a site's significance be interpreted differently by different investigators, but information gaps often exist, which make it difficult to judge whether a site meets a particular criterion.

Adoption of a bioregional approach to listing sites in the Directory is seen as one way of reducing the difficulty in applying the criterion relating to a system's uniqueness or representativeness. The Natural Resource Policies and Programs Committee in 2008 agreed to adopt the Australian Drainage Divisions system, along with Integrated Marine and Coastal Regionalisation of Australia for marine ecosystems, as the best fit national regionalisation approach for aquatic ecosystems.

The wetland classification system used in the Directory identifies 40 different wetland types in three categories:

• A. Marine and Coastal Zone wetlands
• B. Inland wetlands
• C. Human-made wetlands

It is based on that used by the Ramsar Convention in describing Wetlands of International Importance but was modified slightly to suit the Australian situation in describing wetlands of national importance.

A. Marine and Coastal Zone Wetlands

1. Marine waters — permanent shallow waters less than six metres deep at low tide, including sea bays and straits.
2. Subtidal aquatic beds, including kelp beds, seagrass, tropical marine meadows.
3. Coral reefs.
4. Rocky marine shores, including rocky offshore islands and sea cliffs.
5. Sand, shingle or pebble beaches, including sand bars, spits and sandy islets.
6. Estuarine waters — permanent waters of estuaries and estuarine systems of deltas.
7. Intertidal mud, sand or salt flats.
8. Intertidal marshes, including saltmarshes, salt meadows, saltings, raised saltmarshes, tidal brackish and freshwater marshes.
9. Intertidal forested wetlands, including mangrove swamps, nipa swamps and tidal freshwater swamp forests.
10. Brackish to saline lagoons and marshes with one or more relatively narrow connections with the sea.
11. Freshwater lagoons and marshes in the coastal zone.
12. Non-tidal freshwater forested wetlands.

B. Inland Wetlands

1. Permanent rivers and streams, including waterfalls.
2. Seasonal and irregular rivers and streams.
3. Inland deltas (permanent).
4. Riverine floodplains, including river flats, flooded river basins, seasonally flooded grassland, savanna and palm savanna.
5. Permanent freshwater lakes (> 8 ha), including large oxbow lakes.
6. Seasonal/intermittent freshwater lakes (> 8 ha), floodplain lakes.
7. Permanent saline/brackish lakes.
8. Seasonal/intermittent saline lakes.
9. Permanent freshwater ponds.
10. Seasonal/intermittent freshwater ponds and marshes on inorganic soils, including sloughs, potholes, seasonally flooded meadows and sedge marshes.
11. Permanent saline/brackish marshes.
12. Seasonal saline marshes.
13. Shrub swamps — shrub-dominated freshwater marshes, shrub carr and alder thickets on inorganic soils.
14. Freshwater swamp forest — seasonally flooded forest and wooded swamps on inorganic soils.
15. Peatlands — forest, shrub or open bogs.
16. Alpine and tundra wetlands, including alpine meadows, tundra pools and temporary waters from snow melt.
17. Freshwater springs, oases and rock pools.
18. Geothermal wetlands.
19. Inland subterranean karst wetlands.

C. Human-made Wetlands

1. Water storage areas, including reservoirs, barrages, hydro-electric dams and impoundments (generally > 8 ha).
2. Ponds, including farm dams, stock ponds and small tanks.
3. Aquaculture ponds — fish ponds and shrimp ponds.
4. Salt exploitation — salt pans and salinas.
5. Excavations — gravel pits, borrow pits and mining pools.
6. Wastewater treatment — sewage farms, settling ponds and oxidation basins.
7. Irrigated land and irrigation channels — rice fields, canals and ditches.
8. Seasonally flooded arable land and farmland.
9. Canals.