All these would be decreased by any urban development in those near Camperdown. Salt lakes are of particular interest to many scientific disciplines, not least because they are sensitive environmental indicators, have many endemic species, and are significantly different from freshwater lakes. Those near Camperdown have attracted much scientific interest in the past decades, an interest that can only grow as environmental pressures increase. The Western District lakes, as a group, have already been designated as Ramsar sites by the Federal government. The need for public environmental education scarcely requires any emphasis at the present time given the importance of global warming, pollution and other human impacts on the environment.
Lakes provide discrete and amenable study sites.
The lakes at Camperdown are particularly notable in this regard since they offer a span of salinity not seen anywhere else in permanent lakes in Australia - or indeed elsewhere. Not least amongst the values of salt lakes are their values as an integral part of the natural biosphere. It is often only when salt lakes are destroyed or degraded by humans that such values become evident. A case in point and one that I am familiar with is the Aral Sea in central Asia. The degradation of this lake has caused a change in the local climate, given rise to many human health problems, led to the collapse of the local fishery and has caused many other negative impacts.