The Watershed Health Assessment Framework (WHAF) is an organized approach to help us understand watersheds as interconnected natural systems. Using five core ecological components; Biology, Connectivity, Geomorphology, Hydrology, and Water Quality, the WHAF provides a consistent, comprehensive overview of the health of Minnesota’s watersheds.
Our products have been designed to foster a deeper understanding of our ecological systems and to expand the range of factors to consider as we seek to improve the health of Minnesota’s lands and waters.
Suite of applications
WHAF: Explorer
- Access watershed health scores, GIS data, basemaps, and watershed boundaries.
- Tools in the map let you view data, compare health scores, link to charts and download reports for a robust evaluation of watershed health.
- With one-click, the "scale" tool reveals the watershed boundaries that influence a location, from local to large river basin, helping users explore the relationship between health and watershed location.
WHAF: Lakes
- Compare lake health scores across a county or watershed and then dive into specifics about the health of each lake.
- Data summaries and ‘learn more’ content holds the details about the data that drives each lake health score.
- Connect information about lake health to watershed health conditions and concerns.
WHAF: Land Cover
- Summarize land cover, crop cover and cropping history at different scales.
- Explore charts of changes in water use and available water over time.
- Download charts for sharing or further analysis.
Ecological health scores
WHAF Ecological Health Scores show patterns of health across each of the five components. Scores are scaled 0 (least healthy) to 100 (best health). WHAF Ecological Health Scores are hierarchical; individual index and sub-index scores are combined into a component score, and the component scores are combined into an overall health score for watersheds and lakes in Minnesota.
Watershed reports and data summaries
Each major watershed in Minnesota has unique attributes that influence health conditions. The WHAF delivers many data summaries within each of our applications. In addition, the WHAF delivers a suite of downloadable Major Watershed reports that provide ecological context, summarize climate conditions and provide health score overviews.
Key concepts
The WHAF applies key concepts from system science to guide how we manage watershed systems for health. These concepts include health, scale, complexity and resilience.