Watershed Report Card

Watershed Report Card

What is a Watershed Report Card?

It is a report on local watershed conditions using a standardized set of indicators and evaluation, focusing on surface water quality, groundwater quality and forest cover.

Why produce a Watershed Report Card?

  • To report on the health of Ontario’s watersheds through the use of key environmental indicators
  • To allow Conservation Authorities, municipalities and other partners to target priorities and measure environmental change

This is a reporting process that gets scientific information to local decision-makers in watersheds across Ontario so that informed decisions can be made to ensure the ongoing resiliency and sustainability of our water and land resources.

Watershed Report Cards can improve local knowledge and motivate action.

Ontario’s water and land resources, and natural systems, provide important ecological, economic and societal benefits and should be protected.

Conservation Authority programs contribute to healthy watersheds which helps to protect our own health.

To get a look at the local picture and find out what you can do to improve watershed health, click on the watershed report cards below.

The 2023 Watershed Report Card measured:

  • Wetland Cover
  • Surface Water Quality
  • Groundwater Quality
  • Forest Conditions

The 2018* Watershed Report Card measured:

  • Land Use
  • Surface Water Quality
  • Groundwater Quality
  • Forest Conditions

The 2013* Watershed Report Card measured:

  • Impervious Surfaces
  • Surface Water Quality
  • Forest Conditions
  • Wetlands
  • Riparian

The 2007* Watershed Report Card measured:

  • Land Use
  • Water Quality
  • Riparian Buffers
  • Fisheries

*After 2007 Conservation Ontario revised the grading system which means 2007 watershed report cards cannot be compared to report cards produced in 2013 or years after that. The grading system for the 2013 and 2018 watershed report cards are the same.

To get a look at the provincial picture, visit Conservation Ontario’s Watershed Checkup webpage.  

The Hamilton Conservation Authority would like to acknowledge the support of our partners in the provision of data used in grading the indicators presented in the 2018 Watershed Report Card.

  • City of Hamilton
  • Hamilton Conservation Authority’s Aquatic Resource Monitoring Program (ARMP)
  • Hamilton Conservation Authority’s Ecological Land Classification (ELC)
  • Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC)
  • Ontario Benthos Biomonitoring Network (OBBN)
  • Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry Wooded Areas
  • Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change’s Provincial Water Quality Monitoring Network (PWQMN) and Provincial Groundwater Monitoring Network (PGMN)
  • Ontario Stream Assessment Protocol (OSAP)
  • Southern Ontario Land Resource Information System (SOLRIS), Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, 2007