Provides detailed guidance on the design of sampling programs, sampling techniques and the handling and preservation of samples from rivers and streams. It is identical with and has been reproduced from ISO 5667-6:1990.

This part of ISO 5667 sets out the principles to be applied to the design of sampling programmes, sampling techniques and the handling of water samples from rivers and streams for physical, chemical and microbiological assessment. It does not apply to the sampling of estuarine or coastal waters and is of limited applicability to the sampling of canals and other inland waters with restricted flow regimes.Examinations of sediment and biota require special procedures which are not the subject of this part of ISO 5667. In cases where naturally occurring or artificially constructed dams result in the detention of water for several days or more, it may be better to consider the stretch of the river or stream as a standing water body for sampling purposes. ISO 5667-4 provides guidance for sampling in these circumstances.A definition of the purpose of sampling is an essential prerequisite to identifying the principles to be applied to a particular sampling problem. Examples of the purposes of sampling programmes commonly devised for rivers and streams are as follows:a) to assess the quality of water within a river basin;b) to determine the suitability of a river or stream as a source or drinking water;c) to determine the suitability of a river or stream for agricultural use (e.g. spray irrigation, livestock watering);d) to determine the suitability of a river or stream for the maintenance and/or development of fisheries;e) to determine the suitability of a river or stream for amenity use (e.g. aquatic sports and swimming);f) to study the effects of waste discharges or accidental spillages on a receiving water;g) to assess the impact of land use on river or stream quality;h) to assess the effect of the accumulation and release of substances- from bottom deposits on aquatic biota within the water mass, or- on bottom deposits;i) to study the effects of abstraction, river regulation and river-to-river water transfers on the chemical quality of rivers and their aquatic biota;j) to study the effects of river engineering works on water quality (eg. addition/removal of weirs, changes to channel/bed structure).

First published as AS/NZS 5667.6:1998.Reconfirmed 2016. First published as AS/NZS 5667.6:1998.