Five-step Process
The Report Card was developed in 5 Steps:
- What is the big picture? What aspects of the rivers do people value and what are the key threats?
- What do we measure? When selecting indicators, are there available data, or data gaps? Are the indicators relevant? Can they be measured throughout the ecosystem?
- What is healthy? Define the thresholds of ecosystem health. For example, what water temperature limits fish survival?
- How does it add up? Calculate indicator scores (0-100%); average the indicator scores to provide a grade for the ecosystem health for each river.
- What is the story? Communicate results: Who is the target audience? How do we engage local residents and get the attention of decision-makers? How can they have an impact or change behavior? Show historical trends. Clear and simple communication as part of community-based social marketing is key.
