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Watershed Reporting at CVC Influencing and Engaging Decision Makers: A Case Study
Watershed Reporting at CVC
Influencing and Engaging Decision Makers: A Case Study
Outline
• IWMP summary• 5 Year Review Report Card• 10 Year Review • CVC Stakeholders• Components of current WRC• Next Steps
CVC Integrated Watershed Monitoring Program
• Program started in 1999 with the goal of “ensuring an environmentallyhealthy river for economically and socially healthy communities”
• Watershed wide program with approximately 175 monitoring sites in 22 subwatersheds
• Annual reports, program reviews every 5 years
Parameters we measure
Index of Biotic IntegrityFish species, populations and communities
Biology
Parameters of Concern
Community composition
• Water and sediment chemistry• Benthic macroinvertebrates
species, populations and communities
Water Quality
Stream stabilityStream form and channel shapeFluvial Geomorphology
Forest HealthSpecies HealthWetland and riparian health
• Forests and their flora and fauna• Wetlands and riparian
communities
Terrestrial
Temporal trendsFlow regimesHydrology
Recharge ratesBaseflow and groundwater levelsHydrogeology
Air Temperature, Precipitation
WeatherMeteorology
IndicatorArea of FocusDiscipline
IWMP Five Year review
• A 5 year review of the program was completed in 2005 and Watershed Report Cards were produced
• 2 versions for public distribution with different audiences
IWMP 5 Year Review
• Many of the disciplines could not detect a significant change
• 2 of 15 water quality stations showed good results, 4 showed poor results
• 40% of fish stations were in excellent or good health while 30% were in poor health
Limitations to Five Year Review
• Not enough data – for some disciplines more than 50% of the watershed could notbe assigned a score given a lack of data
• Difficult to engage decision makers without that certainty
10 Year Review
• Four Key Questions:– Are there time trends?– Do the time trends differ among zones?– What is the influence of Percent Impervious Cover?– What is the current condition?
• 10 Years of monitoring should give us a better opportunity to develop a statistically robust dataset that could better identify trends.
• From the beginning of the project, discussions around presenting the data in a report card have occurred and have helped us formulate the questions
10 Year Review Trends
• Water quality index and chloride show trends towards improvement
• Mean annual flows increasing
• Forest Birds Species Richness increasing
• Weedy species increasing in lower urban areas suggestion urbanization impacts
• Fish IBI decreasing over all zones
IBI SCORE -Credit River @ Silver Creek u/s Hwy 7 Norval 501110001
y = -2.5276x + 23.839R2 = 0.7387
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
YEAR
IBI V
ALUE
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
0 1
Excellent >15Good (10 - <15)Fair (5 - <10)Poor (<5)501110001 Silver Creek u/s Hwy 7 Norval
10 Year Review
• in order to present results in a watershed report card, we need to establish targets
• Some disciplines have known threshold values Eg benthics - HBI, water quality -WQI, fish - CVC Index of Biotic Integrity
• Other disciplines don’t have well established thresholds e.g. Terrestrial/Species Richness, hydrogeology well levels
10 Year Review Limitations
• Difficult for some disciplines, ie geomorph, to fit into categorized scores (eg. good, fair, poor)
• 10 years of monitoring has not been long enough to collect enough data for some disciplines
• Since not all disciplines are at all sites, integration is a challenge
From the results of the 10 year review, who do we want to engage.
CVC Stakeholders
• Watershed Residents• Municipalities• Government Agencies• Board Members• NGO’s• Conservation Ontario
How to Approach/Engage Stakeholders
• Watershed Residents• Focus on key problem
areas with a simple and focused topic
• Know the issues that concern the residents before engaging them
• Eg. Market research campaign on Sustainable Practices showed 44% don’t know what a watershed is
How to Approach/Engage Stakeholders
• Municipalities• Bring it all back to
land use• What has been the
influence of land use change
• Identify problem areas with scientific data to support
How to Approach/Engage Stakeholders
• Government Agencies
• Focus on the disciplines which they contribute to
• Provide clear scientific data with easy to read trends
How to Approach/Engage Stakeholders
• Board Members and NGO’s• represent a link between the CVC and the
public and municipalities• Want information presented on different
levels• Clear easy to understand for non-scientific
readers
Report Card Considerations
Need to be aware of:• Scale of interest (local, subwatershed,
watershed)• Technical/Scientific sophistication of the
general target reader • The issues of the day• The readers ability to contribute to the goal
of a healthy watershed
Report Card Considerations
• The report card will identify issues and trends that are of concern to the stakeholders and health of the watershed
• Target key locations and practices within the watershed to concentrate our outreach and influence change
• What change, if any, is expected (negative or positive)
• What can be done to contribute to positive change
Final Product
• Publication Blitz• Follow up conversations to key areas
indentified• Presentation to Board• Website• Workshop Presentations
Next Steps
• Expect to have a final technical report by mid December
• Watershed Report Card by spring 2011
