Why Riparian Areas Matter 

Riparian areas are the lands adjacent to streams, rivers, lakes and wetlands, where vegetation and soils are influenced by the presence of water. Although they make up only a small fraction of the land, they are among the most productive and valuable of all landscape types and are often the focus of conflicts between resource users.

Riparian areas support the overall health of our ecosystems, they:

• Trap and store sediment
• Build and maintain banks and shorelines and reduce erosion
• Store water and energy
• Recharge aquifers
• Filter and buffer runoff, protecting water quality
• Maintain biodiversity by providing habitat

Understanding what riparian health looks like and why it matters is important to land and resource managers. This information fills data gaps and helps the LSWC understand the overall condition of riparian health in the watershed, prioritize areas for targeted stewardship activities, and provides a benchmark from which to compare riparian intactness in the future.

There are 3 common types of riparian assessments: Field Based, Aerial Videography Method, and the Satellite desktop method.
The LSWC has completed assessments using all 3 methods:

Satellite Assessments

Satellite Data is a newer method which has become more common since 2015. Riparian Intactness measures the extent to which natural habitat has been altered or impaired by human activity and uses 3 metrics to look at the amount of: Natural vegetation, Woody vegetation, and human footprint or impact in the riparian area. The strengths of this method of assessment are:

• Covers large, continuous areas
• Assesses riparian intactness at a watershed or regional level
• Assesses upland pressure on riparian areas
• Allows for comparisons between water bodies or watersheds

LSWC Satellite Assessments

View Assessment Data on the Alberta Riparian Web Portal

Visit the Portal

The Riparian Web Portal, a WPAC led initiative, was designed to support Albertans in building healthy riparian areas by providing:
• access to condition assessments
• summary statistics for waterbodies, and
• resources for conservation & restoration

The web-portal is a collaborative project between the government and charitable organizations in Alberta. Presently, there are 28 partners, with new partners joining each year.

Aerial Videography Method

Aerial videography measures the health of riparian areas using video footage from low-level flights or drones that are flown along lake and wetland shorelines and river or stream banks. This method was most commonly used between 2005-2015.
Riparian areas are scored and rated in one of 3 categories:   Good/Healthy; Fair/Moderately Impaired; OR Poor/Impaired
Like the Field-based Method, the area is scored according to the amount of:

• Area covered by any plant species, cattails and bulrushes, and woody plants (and signs of new growth)
• Human alteration via bare ground, plant community alterations, or changes to the physical site (including banks
• Human alteration via bare ground or changes to the physical site (including banks)
• Shoreline or bank stability

Aerial Assessments

Field Assessments

Field assessments provide the most detailed information, but they are also the most time and resource-intensive. This method allows for more rapid assessment of site-specific changes (natural or human-caused) due to the method’s high level of detail. This type of assessment pairs well with on-the-ground management or restoration, and informs local landowners to allow for site-specific management actions.

Cows and Fish began conducting riparian health assessments and inventories associated with streams, rivers, lakes and wetlands in Alberta in 1995 and have a well-defined assessment and reporting process that partners across Alberta utilize.