Water Quality Grades

The 2012 NPCA Watershed Report Card consists of 8 Watershed Planning Area (WPA) sections which contain 44 individual report cards. Each section provides information on Watershed Characteristics, Stewardship Highlights, and Groundwater. In addition, within each WPA the NPCA assesses and grades surface water quality and forest conditions. Surface water quality indicators include total phosphorus, bacteria (E. coli) and benthic invertebrate community. Forest condition indicators include percent forest cover, percent forest interior, and percent riparian zone forested. The NPCA has used the best available data to produce these Report Cards. This Watershed Report Card does not include grades for the entire NPCA watershed because there was limited data available. These watersheds include the Welland Canal watershed and many small watersheds that drain into Lake Erie, Lake Ontario and the Niagara River. These watersheds are marked as insufficient data on all mapping in the NPCA Watershed Report Card.2012年NPCA流域报告卡共包含8个流域规划区（Watershed Planning Area，WPA）章节，各章节包含44份独立报告卡。每个章节均涵盖流域特征、管护亮点与地下水相关内容。此外，针对每个流域规划区，NPCA还会对地表水水质与森林状况开展评估并给出评级。地表水水质评估指标包括总磷、细菌（大肠杆菌，E. coli）以及底栖无脊椎动物群落；森林状况评估指标则涵盖森林覆盖率、森林内部区域占比以及河岸带森林覆盖率。NPCA采用现有最优可用数据编制了本套报告卡。由于可用数据有限，本次流域报告卡未对整个NPCA所辖流域进行评级。本次评估涉及的流域包括韦兰运河（Welland Canal）流域，以及众多汇入伊利湖（Lake Erie）、安大略湖（Lake Ontario）与尼亚加拉河（Niagara River）的小型流域。在NPCA流域报告卡的所有地图中，上述流域均被标记为“数据不足”。