Unit Synopsis
Catchment to Reef Management is a capstone unit in which you will synthesise the skills and knowledge developed in your degree to date. You will study how abiotic and biotic factors affect ecosystem development in the major regions of a catchment and examine anthropogenic issues in catchment management. During an extended field trip, you will work in teams to quantitatively and qualitatively examine and evaluate a Central Queensland catchment and then develop elements of a whole of catchment management plan. While planning and undertaking field work you will consider the role and needs of stakeholders, including Traditional Owners, Australian legislative and ethical requirements, and environmental and economic factors.
Details
| Level | Undergraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 3 |
| Credit Points | 6 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 2 |
| Fraction of Full-Time Student Load | 0.125 |
| Pre-requisites or Co-requisites |
Students must successfully complete 96 credit points of study before undertaking this unit. Prerequisites: 96 credit points in an allied discipline (e.g. CV85, CU18, CC13 or other STEM courses). 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
Term 2 - 2026 Profile
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. Research Assignment | 30% |
| 2. Learning logs / diaries / Journal / log books | 20% |
| 3. Portfolio | 50% |
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 2 - 2025 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 0.00% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 8.33% 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
Greater clarity sought for assessment task 3.
Additional information and discussion will be provided for the final assessment task, which is worth 50% of the unit grade.
Additional information provided in written and oral form.
Source: SUTE and in-person feedback
Students again appreciated the residential school and guest lecture/networking opportunities throughout term.
Maintain these aspects of the unit into 2025.
Structure maintained in 2025
Source: In-person
Two students were initially confused about the nature of the assessment items being linked to the residential school, but understood once the different assessment criteria were explained.
Provide a clearer explanation of the assessment structure and its rationale.
In Progress
Source: In-person, email
Students again expressed enthusiastic support for the residential school, particularly the opportunity to meet and network with practitioners in the field (including former CQU students)
Maintain the multi-faceted structure of the residential school for future offerings
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Differentiate the ecology of the major regions within a catchment system
- Articulate the major drivers of issues in catchment management
- Critically explain ecosystem structure and abiotic changes along the length of a catchment system
- Evaluate current catchment management programs and practices
- Plan and complete elements of a whole of catchment survey
- Assess disturbances caused by natural and anthropogenic processes within a catchment system
- Develop elements of a whole of catchment management plan that considers environmental and economic factors, Australian legislative frameworks, community stakeholders and traditional knowledge.
Not applicable.
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | |
| 1 - Research Assignment | • | • | • | • | |||
| 2 - Learning logs / diaries / Journal / log books | • | • | |||||
| 3 - Portfolio | • | • | • | • | • | ||
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | |
| 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 | • | • | |||||
| 9 - Social Innovation | • | ||||||
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 10 | |
| 1 - Research Assignment | • | • | • | • | • | ||||||
| 3 - Portfolio | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | ||
| 2 - Learning logs / diaries / Journal / log books | • | • | • | • | • | ||||||