Providing Structure and Guidance for the Assessment of Stream and River Conditions across Colorado

The 2023 Colorado Water Plan called for the development of the Colorado River Health Assessment Framework (CoRHAF), a comprehensive structure for guiding the assessment of stream and river health across the state. The framework is intended to support institutions, agencies, practitioners, and watershed groups as they endeavor to understand the conditions of Colorado’s waterways.

Colorado Water Plan

Agency Action 3.1

“Stream health assessments are a key component of SMPs and IWMPs. To meet requests from various stakeholders implementing these plans and help bridge a critical knowledge gap, CWCB will develop a new guidance document and workbook that will reside on coloradosmp.org. The framework will help stakeholders approach stream health assessments from a common knowledge base, support local values, and provide a successful approach to completing the assessments. This guidance document will provide an overview of the various concepts for evaluating stream health, engaging stakeholders in the process, and evaluating core data needs related to hydrology, geomorphology, biology, ecology, and regulatory context at watershed and stream-reach scales – information useful for technical experts that would make decisions on prescriptive assessment methodologies. The CoRHAF will be the framework that supports stakeholder engagement and planning that recognizes community values as an important factor in conducting stream health assessments that might normally be based on data and regulatory framework alone.”