Unit Synopsis
On completion of this unit, you will have an understanding of the basic relationships between catchment health, water quality and ecosystem health in receiving waters. You will be able to explain the major threats to water quality and the ways to monitor and manage those threats through the monitoring of physical, chemical and biological parameters and through the preparation of water quality assessment plans. You must attend a compulsory residential school as part of this unit.
Details
| Level | Undergraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 2 |
| Credit Points | 6 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 2 |
| Fraction of Full-Time Student Load | 0.125 |
| Pre-requisites or Co-requisites |
Prerequisite: 24 credit points. Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework). |
| Class Timetable | View Unit Timetable |
| Residential School |
Compulsory Residential School View Unit Residential School |
Unit Availabilities from Term 1 - 2026
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Assessment Tasks
| Assessment Task | Weighting |
|---|---|
| 1. Written Assessment | 35% |
| 2. Practical and Written Assessment | 30% |
| 3. Practical Assessment | 0% |
| 4. Online Test | 35% |
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%).
Past Exams
All University policies are available on the Policy web site, however you may wish to directly view the following policies below.
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of policies are available on the Policy web site .
Term 1 - 2025 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 0.00% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 25% response rate.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Source: SUTE feedback
Students enjoyed the practical learning aspects of this unit especially the residential school.
Unit Coordinator should continue to provide students with practical learning opportunities, whether in-person or virtually.
Practical learning opportunities were provided in-person at the residential school.
Source: Lecturer reflection
Overall engagement with the online unit content was lower than expected.
Review and refine the weekly learning content to ensure it is manageable and accessible and reinforce expectations regarding student participation and workload to support engagement and learning outcomes.
In Progress
Source: SUTE comments
Some students noted occasional inconsistencies between instructions at the residential school, which caused some confusion and highlighted gaps in preparedness.
Improve coordination between teaching staff and review residential school materials to ensure alignment and support student readiness.
In Progress
Source: Student comments, lecturer reflection
Students valued the opportunity to learn from an industry professional during the residential school. Some unit materials, however, could be updated to better reflect current industry practices.
Consult with an industry professional when reviewing and updating unit content to ensure relevance and alignment with current practices.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Describe the basic relationships between catchment health, water quality and end of catchment health
- Describe the major threats to instream and coastal water quality and the effects of land based pollutants on ecosystem health
- Explain the important physico-chemical and biological indicators of water quality and their application
- Discuss different management strategies to reduce diffuse and point source pollutants
- Apply appropriate standards and national guidelines, interpret data and results when designing a water quality assessment plan
- Work with others to assess water quality and ecosystem health in aquatic systems.
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment | • | • | • | • | ||
| 2 - Practical and Written Assessment | • | • | • | • | • | |
| 3 - Practical Assessment | • | |||||
| 4 - Online Test | • | • | • | • | ||
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 1 - Communication | • | • | • | • | • | |
| 2 - Problem Solving | • | • | • | • | • | |
| 3 - Critical Thinking | • | • | • | • | • | |
| 4 - Information Literacy | • | • | • | • | • | • |
| 5 - Team Work | • | |||||
| 6 - Information Technology Competence | • | • | • | • | • | • |
| 7 - Cross Cultural Competence | • | • | ||||
| 8 - Ethical practice | • | • | ||||
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 10 | |