When undertaking Ecological Impact Assessments we often need to undertake a watercourse assessment to provide resource consent advice to Council as to whether the property contains a stream or an overland flow path. In this photo, I am showing an overland flow path, it is not a stream because it does not show substrate sorting processes, it does not contain any aquatic life and it lacks any aquatic vegetation. Stream ecological valuations are not undertaken on overland flow paths because they lack the basic biogeochemical and hydrological ecosystem functions of a stream