Review of ecological integrity assessments for fresh waters

These are the complete set of documents reviewed as frameworks for assessment of ecological integrity of freshwaters between 1985 and 2015. Within the 87 documents, we identified 89 approaches (named "frameworks") for assessing integrity in freshwaters; these frameworks were contrasted using attributes that described the types of metrics used, the results, applications, ecosystem type, and statistics applied. This dataset was the result of a comprehensive literature review using the following steps: Our protocols for search and selection generally followed those outlined by Pullin and Stewart (2006) for systematic review. We used Thomson ISI’s Web of Science, Science Direct, JSTOR, and Google Scholar search engines to generate an initial set of potential assessment publications through 2015 using combinations of the words: ecological integrity, ecological condition, ecosystem health, assessment, bioassessment, freshwater, wetland, riparian, lake, river, stream, watershed. We used these same combinations in standard search engines to identify relevant grey literature, as well as additions discovered through citations within publications. This resulted in an initial pool of documents (n=370), which related to the assessment at least one type of freshwater system - wetlands, lakes, streams, riparian areas, or watersheds - in North America. We then screened this document pool against the following review criteria: 1) condition or integrity were considered an endpoint for the assessment, 2) the total geographic scale assessed was greater than or equal to a watershed, 3) the methods and products were described sufficiently to assess a majority of attributes, and 4) the methods could be considered generalizable and applicable at different scales, geographic locations, or with respect to other management or conservation goals.The data forms the basis of the publication "Past, Present, and Future of Ecological Integrity Assessments" in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment