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The Sydney drinking water catchment is a large area with a wide range of land uses. The need to protect water quality for human health is paramount and requires management by identification and prioritisation of pathogen risks. An understanding of activities in the catchment in combination with knowledge of the impacting external factors is required. Some activities within the catchment are clear pathogen sources (e.g. sewage treatment plants, agriculture, native and feral animals) whilst others have the capacity to act as pathogen sinks (large transport distances, sedimentation potential, UV-exposure). Some entities, such as farm dams and dairy effluent ponds, are more difficult to clearly define as one or the other, with potentially both source and sink characteristics. Quantification tools are being used to allocate these factors with appropriate weights and to help prioritise risk factors in Sydney’s watershed under …