Development and Training for Reach and Watershed Assessment Protocols in Coastal Plain North Carolina

The North Carolina Ecosystem Enhancement Program (EEP) requested that ECU field test the riparian assessment protocol that it had developed for EEP and adapt the procedureto assess watershed condition. Field testing revealed that although the reach-scale assessment protocols were useful for diagnosing problems in rural watersheds, more reference-based data were needed to calibrate the protocols dveloped for urban reaches. In light of the fact that watershed assessments using the riparian protocol and watershed sampling design were useful in summarizing watershed condition and diagnosing problems in inland watershed, EEP would like the protocol ECU developed applied to a set of small watersheds that flow directly to estuarine waters (i.e. coastal watersheds). However, coastal watersheds differ from inland ones in that their condition is also affected near shore land-use for which no assessment protocol has yet been developed. In considering the needs of EEP, the proposed study has three main objectives: (1) provide classroom and field training to consultants and EEP personnel so that they can conduct riparian assessments of randomly assigned reaches in coastal watersheds and sue the data to diagnose problems in the watersheds, (2) develop an urban reference set to help calibrate indicators of condition for urban reaches, and (3) summarize available shoreline data and other potential indicators that may be useful for assessing condition of coastal watersheds.

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