Riparian Assessments in the NSR Project Background and Results
Presentation by: Mary Ellen Shain October 25, 2018 2 NSWA Sub-Watershed Alliances
3 Headwaters Alliance
• Clearwater County • Rocky Mountain House • Brazeau County • Drayton Valley • Parkland County • Devon • Leduc County • Wetaskiwin County
• O’Chiese First Nation
• Est. 2014 • Platform for communities to collaborate their efforts to achieve a healthy watershed
4 HA Project Plan Development
5 Indicators of Watershed Health
6 Municipal Programs
7 Riparian Health in the IWMP
8 Project Funders
• Watershed Resiliency & Restoration Program • Alberta Community Partnership Grant • Many municipal partners of the NSWA • EPCOR
9 Riparian Health Unknown in NSR
10 Current Assessment Approaches
Most common condition assessment methods include: • Field based rapid assessment • Aerial videography
Image credit: Cows & Fish Image credit: NSWA
11 Remote Sensing and GIS Approach
• Allows for objective and repeatable mapping and assessment over larger spatial extents • Can be used to identify and prioritize areas for ground- based assessments, if required
12 GIS Tool Development
Step 1: Identify shorelines of interest
Step 2: Create/compile land cover: • AAFC Land Cover • ABMI Human Footprint • SPOT (6 m resolution)
Step 3: Quantify GIS metrics
Step 4: Compare Videography & GIS results
13 Riparian Assessment Methods
Riparian Intactness: • Is riparian habitat present? • How intact is the riparian habitat?
14 Example: Sturgeon River
15 Example: Left Bank RMA Polygons
16 Example: Left Bank RMA Intactness Scores
17 Example: Right Bank RMA Polygons
18 Example: Right Bank RMA Intactness Scores
19 Overall Project Results
• Total ~5,400 km assessed • Creeks and Lakes • Overall Score:
52% Highly Intact 14% Moderate 11% Low Intact 23% Very Low Intact
20 Data Summary by Sub-watershed
Strawberry Sub-watershed 615 198 449 665
Sturgeon Sub-watershed 444 360 221 734
Modeste Sub-watershed 255 63 168 1225
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Very Low Low Moderate High Intactness
21 Assessing Riparian Areas Provincially
• GOA Assessed 4 lakes in central Alberta using the same metrics (>800 km of shoreline)
(155.3 km)
(483.7 km)
(159.4 km)
(75.7 km)
22 Riparian Assessment Methods
Pressure on Riparian Systems Function: • What natural and anthropogenic factors exist that may increase or decrease pressure on the ecological and hydrological function of riparian habitats?
23 Catchment Pressure Metrics
24 Pressure Assessment
25 Combining Intactness and Pressure
26 Conservation & Restoration Priority Maps
Strawberry Sub-watershed 507 306 614 499
Sturgeon Sub-watershed 483 319 410 545
Modeste Sub-watershed 247 71 399 991
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
High Restoration Priority Moderate Restoration Moderate Conservation High Conservation Priority
27 What can we do with this information?
• Public Education: make the data publicly accessible • Voluntary sphere: ALUS, Green Acreages, Land Trust, other conservation groups, priority area for grants • Regulatory sphere: ER, Conservation reserve, inter-municipal collaboration on decision making
28 Municipal Program Options
29 Riparian Health Agencies
30 Land Ownership Type
31 E.g. Brazeau County
32 Riparian Web-portal Coming Soon!
33 Thank You!
Mary Ellen Shain, M.Sc.
Watershed Planning and Management Coordinator, North Saskatchewan Watershed Alliance Edmonton, Alberta Tel: (587) 525-6828 Email: [email protected]
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