Mahinga kai is a key value for freshwater management that needs to be articulated in objective setting for environmental limits in the National Objectives Framework (NOF). Mahinga kai generally refers to indigenous freshwater species that have traditionally been used for food, tools or other resources. Many mahinga kai sites, both current and historical, are in lowland settings where freshwater environments are often in a degraded state and values are correspondingly compromised. With limited availability of sites in good condition within rohe to help define desired states for mahinga kai, alternative approaches are needed to establish condition bands for management. In particular, tools that assist with envisaging desired states and predicting environmental changes required to sustain those states will help communities and tangata whenua set management objectives. To achieve this effectively an approach is required that utilises Mātauranga Māori and science tools