Water Stewardship Information Sources
| Citation | Page, N and Johnston, C. 2006. Review of environmental monitoring approaches for urban streams in the GVRD. Prepared for Greater Vancouver Regional District. |
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| Organization | Metro Vancouver |
| URL | http://www.raincoastappliedecology.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/GVRD-Env-Monitoring-Final-Draft-Report.pdf |
| Abstract/Description or Keywords | The purpose of this report is to identify and evaluate approaches for assessing and monitoring the health of urban streams in the GVRD. Assessment is the measurement of current condition while monitoring is the repeated collection of measurements to define trends over time. Stream health is a measure of the integrity of the ecological processes, chemical composition, habitats, and biological community that make up the stream ecosystem. Monitoring contributes to the management of stream health by defining current condition, informing land use planning processes through forecasting, and measuring the success of stormwater management activities including low impact development practices in maintaining existing stream health. Defining a question or questions is an essential component of the monitoring program. Three questions should form the basis of each monitoring plan: 1) What is the current health of the stream measured using a suite of indicators? 2) What is the predicted change in the stream's health in response to future urbanization and stormwater management activities? 3) What is the measured trend in a stream's health as urbanization and stormwater management activities occur? These questions should be modified to address specific management objectives and watershed conditions. Five groups of approaches for monitoring stream health are described, assessed and compared: 1) watershed land cover; 2) hydrology; 3) environmental chemistry; 4) channel morphology and habitat; and, 5) aquatic biota. These groups represent different components of watershed processes or stream features. Ten criteria were used to assess and compare different monitoring approaches. |
| Information Type | report |
| Regional Watershed | Lower Fraser |
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| Project status | complete |
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