telling the water quality story through report cards
TRANSCRIPT
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Telling your Watershed
Story…
Nancy Roberts-Lawler
Musconetcong Watershed Association
WITH REPORT CARDS!!
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What Would You Do?
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?
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Nice Idea, But…
How long does it take to figure out where the bottles go?
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Our World
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Once upon a time…
VM Collected Data
– Engage & Educate Public
– To understand our river
• Current year and trends
• Baseline vs restoration
• Basis for advocacy
– Elicit public project support
– Cost low but still…
– Were we answering a need?
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Who Read the Report?
• Executive Director
• 2 highly committed volunteers
….What were we doing wrong?
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What We Wanted
I’m replacing my lawn
with native plants!
Our citizens should
test their wells!
Our data shows that the % sensitive bugs is
declining, average nitrates are 3.0mg/l , the RBP
Habitat Score is under 100! Time to create a septic ordinance!
MWA
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Our Audience
Puedo comer la trucha?
Should I drink
bottled water?
Our data shows that the % sensitive bugs is
declining, average nitrates are 3.0mg/l , the RBP Habitat Score is under
100! Why aren’t you collecting data by the Walmart?
MWA
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Revelation
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Is the Public Listening to Our Story?
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Are We Giving Our Audience What They Need?
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Water Monitoring World Focus
Collect Credible Data
Communicate
Problem or Question Study Design to Answer Question
Analyze Data
Process into Information
ACTION?
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Focus Needed
Collect Credible Data
Communicate to Target Audience
Listen to Community Questions
Study Designed to Answer Question
Analyze Data
Process into Information
Community needs
ACTION!
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Typical Source for the Audience
Audience Type Scientific
Management
Decision makers
Public
Source
Primary/documentation
Technical Documents
Summary Reports, NJGeoWeb
Newspaper articles, TV, Social media!
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Typical Source for the Audience
Audience Type Scientific
Management
Decision makers
Public
Source
Primary/documentation
Technical Documents
Summary Reports, NJGeoWeb
Newspaper articles, TV, Social media!
REPORT NOT PICKED UP BY MEDIA!!
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Back to the Drawing Board
• Action desired should relate to mission
• Our mission: protect & restore our river
• We want readers to HELP US protect & restore!!
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Start at the End of the Story
• What did we want people to do or feel? – Identify MWA as credible
information source
– MWA cares about them
– Identify challenges AND SOLUTIONS
– EMPOWER THEM to help raise the water quality!
• How were we going to communicate that?
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Report Card Prototypes
Kawartha http://www.kawarthaconservation.com/reportcard/2013KawarthaReportCard.pdf Nanticoke http://nanticokeriver.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/2013-Nanticoke-RR-Final.pdf Baltimore Harbor http://ian.umces.edu/pdfs/ian_report_card_448.pdf Mystic River http://www.epa.gov/mysticriver/pdfs/MysticRiverWatershedReportCardMap2013.pdf Sacramento River http://ice.ucdavis.edu/waf/ Mississippi http://americaswater.wpengine.com/reportcard/ Chesapeake http://ian.umces.edu/ecocheck/report-cards/chesapeake-bay/2013/
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NJDEP Fresh Water & Biological
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Why Report Cards?
• Give air of authority
• People understand purpose
– Easy to read
– People understand grades. layout
• But…Hardly ever includes direction for improvement
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Maybe More Engaging Content?
• Value of watershed
• Measurement explanations
• Value of data for
– Wildlife
– People
• Easy to Read
• Visually interesting
• Give direction
• Easy to re-use format (¢)
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When Developing Content, Consider…
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What Parameters Tell Story?
• Samples – All (DO,Temp, pH, NO3,
Macros, Habitat)
– Easiest to understand? – Most relevant to audience
• What metric? – Averages, min/max – Scores – Statistics
• Graphs – Points – Trends – Site Comparisons
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Does Format Support Goal?
• In tables
• Assessments
– Grade (A -F)
– Evaluation (Excellent/Poor)
• Grades goal-oriented
– Fishing, swimming, drinking
– Standards/criteria oriented • DO/Temp, TP, NO3
• macroinvertebrate index
“C” is average! We are typical!
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Concern: TMI=Confusion
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What should it look like?
• Entice people to read?
• Attractive – Cover?
– Font?
– Color?
– How many pages?
– Layout
– How to fit?
– Pictures
– Photos?
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Hire Professional Communicators: Artists!
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Hire A Creative Team
Editor/Writer
• You develop content
• Independent editor – Improves readability
– Keeps consistent
– Help you reach audience
• Proofreading is not editing
• BTW: Word--grammar, also readability stats
Graphic Artist
• More professional looking
• Favorable impression
• May wish to consider – Data visualization specialist
– Illustrator
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Creative Team Considerations
• Professional vs student
• Understand your issues?
• Copyright/Contract
• Time
• Who will Proofread?
– Copy
– Graphics & placement
– Photos
• Final Draft-Who has control?
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MWA Report Card Content
• Cover
• Introduction – Report basis
– Links to more information
• Map of site locations
• Environmental Indicators
• Site Report Cards
• Conclusion—first steps!
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Map: Where nearest site?
• Sites- – Roads
– Municipalities
– Read in color /B&W
• Options – Satellite?
– Symbols?
– Color?
• Impervious surface?
• Forest coverage
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Introduction
• Who
• What
• When
• How
• For more information…
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Actions to Improve Each Environmental Indicator
• Three to four actions
• Icons
– Planting
– Seek expert advice
– Replace when able
– Change practice
• Designed for focus
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To Control Parameter, Which Actions?
• Parameters
– Source & Importance
– Control options
• MWA chose
– Temperature (Max)
– Nitrates (Average)
– Aquatic Life (Score)
– Habitat (Score)
Sub-optimal temperature
Improve riparian buffer
Sub-optimal nitrates
Test well, maintain septic system, test well
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Site Report
• Photos
– Shot in same direction
– With people best
• Assessment with graphics
• Site Meaning & Actions
– Site value
– What are challenges
– Recommendations
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Grading System
• Concern-
– “Good” or “B”= INACTION
– “Poor” or “F”=Fear or GIVE UP
• Kept Optimal, Sub-optimal, Fair, Poor
• Icon for each Grade
OPTIMAL SUB-OPTIMAL
MARGINAL POOR
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Conclusion
• Actions for residents/municipalities
– Increasing buffers
– Decreasing impervious pavement
– Could take years
• Interim actions
– Work with MWA
– Look for grant $$
– Encourage small steps
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Don’t Forget…
• Direct to links
• Direct to partners
• Footnotes
• Mention funder…
• Release to public
• Pre and Post Survey
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What Is Your Story??