Articulating Your Purpose
Articulating a clear purpose for a river health assessment is a critical early step in the process. It requires some reflection on the foundational motivations for the effort. Contemplating answers to the following questions may be of some use: What is the catalyst for planning? What challenges does the river or watershed face? What are the outstanding stakeholder interests in stream or river management? What will results from a river health assessment be used for?
The more specificity included in the articulation of assessment purpose and desired outcomes, the greater the chance the assessment will meet community needs, close gaps in river system understanding, and produce actionable outcomes. The majority of river health assessments are completed for one of the following reasons:
Characterizing Ambient or Baseline Conditions
Ambient or baseline assessments characterize existing conditions without regard to specific actions, past or predicted. This type of assessment may broadly consider the conditions of water quality, hydrological regime, channel geomorphology, riparian condition, aquatic habitat, and numerous other drivers of river health. This assessment strategy can be particularly useful when particular stressors and challenges to river health are not well understood. Results from the river health assessment can help reveal the most important drivers of degraded river health. Health assessment outcomes may also be used as the baseline for ongoing ambient monitoring programs that track changing conditions through time.
Anticipating Change
Anticipatory assessments consider the river health factors that are likely to change in the short- to long-term in response to both natural factors like climate change and human actions like new water supply development. These assessments aim to make informed predictions about the magnitude, duration, and frequency of future impacts on river health. Assessment activities are often triggered by a pending action or project on the horizon. Restoration projects, shifts in water management, population growth, and new streamside development are all examples of actions and activities that might spur a river health assessment. These results of such an assessment should help inform resource management decisions and/or policies related to the known agent of change.
Responding to Events
Many assessments are carried out in response to significant watershed event, such as flood or wildfire. Assessment efforts can help identify and prioritize the types and locations of dominant river health stressors. Results can help communities and stakeholder groups prioritize actions that aim to return the river to pre-disturbance conditions.
Create Your Purpose Statement
Achieving a consensus on an assessment’s purpose for smaller efforts constrained to short river reaches may be possible among a focused leadership team or a small, un-facilitated stakeholder group. For larger assessments in watersheds with numerous stakeholders and competing or conflicting water interests, professionally facilitated processes may be needed to arrive at consensus regarding the purpose of the assessment. In either case, working through the following process can help you arrive at a robust purpose statement for your health assessment:
1 – What is the core function of the river health assessment?
In a single, concise sentence, describe the primary function or expected outcome of the assessment. What fundamental question(s) will it help answer about the river’s condition?
Collect input from the individuals and/or organizations participating in the planning for the health assessment. Look for common themes and similar concepts within the responses and cluster them correspondingly. Once clustered, rank ideas from the most to the least relevant. Combine and modify highly-ranked ideas as needed. Then strive to identify a single, overarching concept that encapsulates the majority of the work. For instance, is the main function to “evaluate the ecological integrity of the river,” or to “provide a scientific basis for future management decisions,” or perhaps to “translate complex technical data into a publicly accessible report card”?
2 – Who is this assessment for?
Identify all the potential audiences, stakeholders, or user groups for the river health assessment. This could include federal, state, or local government, water providers, conservation organizations, advocacy groups, agricultural users, recreational users, and the general public.
Reflect on this list and determine the primary audience for assessment results. While the assessment may serve multiple groups, consider whose needs are most central to its purpose. For example, is this assessment primarily intended to inform regulatory decisions by a Board of County Commissioners, or is its main goal to educate and engage the broader community?
3 – What is the desired impact of this assessment?
Consider the key challenges (and opportunities) facing the river. How will the river health assessment empower your primary audience and others to address these challenges?
Think beyond the immediate delivery of data or a final report. What is the ultimate, lasting impact you want this assessment to have? Do you aim to “drive the implementation of targeted restoration projects,” “foster greater community stewardship of the river,” or “ensure that future development decisions are made with a clear understanding of their potential impact on river health”? Your purpose should capture the meaningful change you hope to inspire.
4 – Formulate your purpose statement.
Use the outputs from steps 1-3 to generate a purpose statement for your river health assessment. Make sure your purpose statement includes the health assessment’s core function (Step 1), references the primary audience (Step 2), and outlines the desired impact (Step 3).
Example 1: The Community Engagement Model
To translate complex scientific data into a clear and accessible annual river health report card for community members, local schools, and recreational users, in order to foster a strong sense of public stewardship and empower informed, grassroots advocacy for the river’s long-term protection.
Example 2: The Policy and Management Model
To provide a scientifically robust assessment of the river’s ecological condition and primary stressors in a manner that supports decision-making by water resource managers and local elected officials and helps watershed groups implement effective, targeted restoration projects.
Example 3: The Collaborative Action Model
To create a shared, scientifically-grounded understanding of current river health for all watershed stakeholders—from agricultural producers to conservation groups and industry leaders—in order to build consensus, reduce conflict, and foster collaborative action towards a healthy and resilient river system.
