Developing indicators of watershed health through public consultations and positing the use of ecological place-based approach in watershed management planning

Watershed health assessment is essential in the identification of issues and in the development of a plan to find solutions to issues. Watershed health is assessed based on a suite of watershed health indicators (WHI) often selected by technical experts. Stakeholders’ input into the selection of WHIs is necessary. Additionally, the importance of each indicator varies in different areas of a large watershed due to differences in ecological factors. The Red Deer River Watershed Alliance (RDRWA) conducted public consultation workshops at three locations that corresponded to natural regions (ecological land units) within the Red Deer River watershed, Alberta, Canada. Participants were asked, “What are your watershed issues?” Similar issues were grouped together and placed under a corresponding group of watershed health environmental indicators used by the RDRWA and the Government of Alberta. Non- environmental issues turned out to be social and institutional issues and these were classified based on the subject or topic that emerged from the process of grouping similar issues together. Issues were analyzed and comparisons were made between locations. Nine environmental indicator groups, three of which were new, and a new set of eight social and institutional indicator groups were identified. Natural regions influenced environmental indicators and, to a lesser extent, social and institutional indicators. Using natural regions within a large watershed is an ecological place-based approach that groups together land areas and their communities that have similar environmental issues. This approach, in combination with the use of WHIs developed by stakeholders, will provide the basis of a comprehensive watershed health report and a management plan in the future. This approach can be replicated in other places in the world that practice participatory watershed management planning.