Once you’ve collected water quality data, it is important to use it to assess the health of your watershed. This page shares resources that help you study your data to see how your water quality changes spatially, over time, or as a result of your restoration or adaptation work. Your monitoring plan should be reviewed and adapted frequently to ensure it is meeting the goals and objectives of the program. Use the resources below to evaluate your program and revisit your plan.
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Watershed Report Card Tool
COMING SOON: Atlantic Water Network is developing an online tool to help watershed groups share the results of their water quality monitoring programs. The tool will intake the group’s water quality data and will output a water quality report card ready to share with communities and stakeholders.
Contributor: Atlantic Water Network
Analyze water quality data
Atlantic Water Network hosts workshops on Data Management and Data Analysis. Click below to download workshop materials and instructional videos.
The Water Quality Assessment, Analysis and Interpretation online course is a signature course delivered by the Canadian Rivers Institute’s Training and Professional Development programme. This course advances participants’ abilities to design water quality research and monitoring programs and analyze water quality conditions and trends.
The CCME Water Quality Index (CCME WQI) provides a convenient means of summarizing complex water quality data and facilitating its communication to a general audience.
A massive undertaking, our Watershed Health Assessment and Monitoring project seeks to understand and evaluate the health of the Ottawa River watershed. Fourteen Watershed Health Indicators were identified as key metrics to understand the overall state of watershed.
The CCME Water Quality Index (CCME WQI) provides a convenient means of summarizing complex water quality data and facilitating its communication to a general audience.
The table lists the United States EPA's recommended aquatic life criteria.
The CMC service providers offer a variety of data interpretation and synthesis support based on the communication and data use goals of each monitoring group.
The USGS works with partners to monitor, assess, conduct targeted research, and deliver information on a wide range of water resources and conditions including streamflow, groundwater, water quality, and water use and availability. Explore their website to get ideas on how best to analyze your data.
Adapt your plan
This interactive tool provides guidance that can be used to develop and modify a water monitoring plan unique to your organization and watershed. The Water Monitoring Plan builder provides guidance on twelve steps, including: goal setting, monitoring logistics, training, evaluation, and sharing knowledge.
Evaluate your plan
This template helps record the volunteer time involved in a project and calculate in-kind values for volunteer contributions.
This document lists some water quality stewardship metrics for potential use in proposal writing, project planning or project updates. There are examples of well-informed and meaningful metrics including participation, data and decision making, project deliverables, and watershed health metrics.
