This project is intended to improve and protect water quality through the design and implementation a system for integrating social indicators into nonpoint source (NPS) planning, implementation, and evaluation.  Effective management of NPS water pollution requires addressing both environmental conditions and the choices people make that impact the environment. NPS pollution results from aggregate impacts of individual actions across the landscape. These water quality problems have built up over decades and may take decades to amend – even when mitigating practices are put into place, environmental monitoring may not immediately demonstrate improvement in water quality.

Social indicators for NPS management provide information about awareness, attitudes, constraints, capacity, and behaviors that are expected to lead to water quality improvement and protection. By measuring these indicators over time, water quality managers can target their project activities and assess whether their projects are accomplishing changes expected to improve and protect water quality.  Monitoring social indicators, like monitoring environmental indicators, gives us valuable information about how well our management strategies are working.

Social indicators complement other environmental and administrative indicators to present a complete picture of project effectiveness. For assistance in developing this social component of the NPS Evaluation Framework, the regional state agency NPS coordinators have initiated this joint project in cooperation with land grant universities throughout the region.

Process and Products

1. Region 5 multi-state Social Indicator Team established (Spring 2005)

• Team Contacts

2. Participatory process for social indicator selection – workshops held and stakeholders surveyed in each state for user input (Fall 2005 –spring 2006)

• Survey Results (1.2 Mb pdf)
• Survey Summary (77 Kb pdf)
  

3. Core set of social indicators for NPS management and evaluation developed (summer 2006 )

• Core social indicators (49 Kb pdf)

4. Draft guidance document for using social indicators in NPS management (early 2007)
The draft document was circulated among NPS programs within Region 5 as well as external reviewers. Feedback led to important project adjustments.

5. Select pilots and begin testing social indicator system for NPS evaluation 2007-2011)
Pilot projects are occurring in each state in order to test the accuracy and usability of the core indicators, as well as provide opportunities to develop other methods and supplemental indicators for measuring the social component of the NPS management.

6. Testing and application of the on-line Social Indicators Data Management and Analysis (SIDMA) tool (April 2008)
Pilot projects will be able to access the SIDMA website here when the model is completed.

7. Revise draft guidance document based on comments 2007-2008
A revised Handbook for using the social indicators system is under development. State NPS programs and pilot projects are providing feedback throughout this process.

• View draft (341 Kb pdf)

8. Develop and assess multiple tools for evaluating the social component of NPS programs at project, state and regional levels. (2008-2010 )
Development of these tools will be ongoing. Below is the current list for planning and assessment of the social component of NPS management

• Complementary and alternative methods

9. Develop supplemental social indicators (2007-2010)
Supplemental indicators that can be used with core indicators will be developed throughout the pilot projects phase.

• Supplemental indicators will be linked here as they are developed.

10. Full and revised version of the social indicators system complete (2011)

• Final Handbook for using the social indicators system (under development)
• SIDMA website

11. Provide a means of support for use of social indicators beyond the pilot phase (2011)

• Discussions between State NPS programs, USEPA Region 5, and the regional social indicators team will determine the nature and extent of ongoing support for the socialindicators system.

 

Complementary Planning and Evaluation Resources

Below are resources for watershed planning and evaluation that provide complementary approaches to assessing the social component of NPS management.

Planning

• Identifying your target audience.
• Social Assessment: For examples of broad social data applied to NPS assessment and evaluation, please visit the LaMoine report and the Vermillion report.To learn more about the profiles approach used to generate these reports, please visit the Social Dimensions of Watershed Planning.

Evaluating Activities

• Evaluating workshops (115 Kb pdf)
  
• Evaluating newsletters (222 Kb pdf)

Acknowledgements

This project is as a joint effort of the USEPA, state water quality agencies in Region 5, and Land Grant Universities through the USDA-CSREES Great Lakes Regional Water Quality Program. The project is supported through in-kind contributions from participating organizations, the USDA CSREES Great Lakes Regional Water Quality Program, and state funds provided through Section 319 of the Clean Water Act. Development of the social indicator framework involves collaborative contributions from the Regional Social Indicators Project Team, comprised of staff and faculty at USEPA, state agencies, and Land Grant Universities in the USEPA Region 5/ CSREES Great Lakes Region. The project was initiated under the leadership of the CSREES Great Lakes Regional Water Quality Program.

EPA Region 5 Social Indicators Team