The Watershed Health Assessment Framework (WHAF) uses five components to view natural systems. Like looking through different colored lenses, each component brings a different perspective and a consistent approach for exploring complex landscapes.
The five components 'frame' the WHAF in several ways:
- How we explore and understand the ways natural systems function and interact
- How we calculate and deliver health index scores
- How we evaluate trade-offs between resource management approaches.
The Five Components
Biology
The study of life, encompassing the plants and animal species present in the stream, riparian lands and contributing watershed.
Connectivity
The maintenance of pathways that move organisms, energy, and matter throughout the watershed.
Geomorphology
The study of landscape features; from their origins and evolutions to the processes that continue to shape them.
Hydrology
The inter-relationships and interactions between water and its environment in the hydrologic cycle.
Water Quality
The chemical, biological, and physical characteristics of water; the current condition and future susceptibility of surface water and groundwater to degradation.
Health Scores
A suite of watershed health index scores have been calculated that represent many of the important ecological relationships within and between the components. These scores are built on statewide GIS data that is compared consistently across Minnesota to provide a baseline health condition report for each of the 81 major watersheds in the state.