Draft of LTPBR Planning Report - Introduction and Project Setting

In this course you will develop Phase 1 of a Planning Report for a LTPBR project. The goal in Phase 1 is to describe the background, problem, setting, condition and trajectory of site, and pathways to recovery. Phase 1 will be a DESKTOP exercise meaning the setting and condition assessment will be based on available reports, online resources, and spatial data. In a typical planning process this DESKTOP exercise would be followed up by a field visit to validate and adjust as necessary. If it is feasible for you, you are welcome to visit a real riverscape where you complete this assignment, or use a site you have previously worked at. However, you can do everything in this module from your desktop. 

Students can propose any riverscape they like. have discretion to use any platform and data sources to develop the Phase 1 report. If you do NOT have relatively strong GIS skills and time to devote outside of class to making maps and a fancy report, you should focus more on going through the motions and thought processes of planning and use simple tools like Google Earth or even just hand drawn maps to illustrate things like valley bottom extent, channel characteristics, potential sites of heightened risk, etc. We do have a TA and some other people that can answer some GIS related questions and there are lots of videos on how to do many of the planning steps.

Here is a link Links to an external site. (and video) to a Google Doc report template you can use or modify.

Here are some older examples of planning reports Links to an external site. - please do NOT use these as gospel - we are constantly updating how we do things - the goal is for you to think like a restoration practitioner through the lens of low-tech process-based approaches. 

You should develop a DRAFT of the first two steps in a MODIFIED NRCS Phase 1 - Collection & Analysis. The DRAFT should include the details on following broad topics:

• Introduction - background and problems
  • Broad management goals and specific outcomes
  • Project location (including a map and google pin location), description, and scope
• Project Setting (Ecoregion, Landuse, Process Regimes [Flow, Sediment, Wood, Beaver/Biological/Ecological]) 
• Please submit your draft report as a Google Doc by providing a link with us. Make sure it is either public or something that you give access to Joe Wheaton and Sandy Johnston.

You can proceed further if you like. This is just pacing you.

FOR ALL RESOURCES FOR DEVELOPING YOUR REPORT 

See Final Project Page here.