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Monitoring Riverscape Health

Overview to CEWA/WATS 6628

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This is the main resource page for the CEWA/WATS 6628 - Introduction to Action-Effectiveness Monitoring of Riverscape Restoration Projects course offered through Utah State University. This course is part of an advanced series of courses on Low Tech Process Based Restoration (LTPBR) offered through USU and the Riverscapes Consortium. The course is designed to provide hands-on experience with monitoring of riverscapes using QRiS. This course compliments the Introduction to LTPBR Design in the Intro to LTPBR Spring Series and most directly follows on to concepts in the Advanced LTPBR Planning (CEWA/WATS 6626) course.

Description: Students learn how to monitor and assess riverscape health through a mix of desktop and field work. They conduct assessments in Riverscapes Studio, publish their findings, and present to peers.

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This page appears here on the QRiS documentation site as QRiS users may find it helpful for self-guided learning.

CEWA/WATS 6628 - Syllabus

Fall 2026 - Syllabus on LTPBR USU Site.

Community

Community Page on Riverscapes Consortium for Advanced LTPBR CEWA Series 6626-6629

Event Page for 2025 Course

Event Page with Meeting Joining Details

Prerequisites and Preparing for Class

Background or Catch-Up Reading

The course is built around monitoring of riverscapes, and seeks to monitor metrics that relate to riverscape health. In Wheaton et al. (2019) and Glassic et al. (2025), Principles of Riverscape Health are introduced that form the basis for understanding how to monitor riverscapes.

  • Glassic, H. C., Al-Chokhachy, R., Wheaton, J., Macfarlane, W. W., Jordan, C. E., Murphy, B., et al. (2025). Principles of Riverscape Health. WIREs Water, 12(4), e70028. DOI:10.1002/wat2.70028

As one example of one set of metrics related to one principle of riverscape health (hydrologic ineffiency is healthy) we refer you to Bartelt et al. (2025) based on the Riverscapes Innundation Mapping protocol:

  • Bartelt, K. M. (2025). Mapping valley bottom inundation patterns from beaver dam activity: A potential proxy for hydrologic inefficiency. PLOS Water, 4(11), e0000428. DOI: 10.1371/journal/pwat.0000428

We assume you have read and are familiar with Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 of the Design Manual. This was assigned in WATS 5623/CEWA 5623, but if you have not taken that course, please read it now. If you have not taken WATS 5623/CEWA 5623, you should watch the self-paced lecures.

This course will be focused on how we quanatitative use monitoring, mapping and analysis in QRiS to build off of the concepts from the Intro to LTPBR course and Intro to LTPBR Planning course:

Details

Papers & Chapters to read before class

Glassic et al. (2025) Principles of Riverscape Heatlh image

Glassic et al. (2025) Principles of Riverscape Heatlh

Recent synthesis and review of Principles of Riverscape Health.

Chapter 2 – Principles of Low-Tech Process-Based Restoration image

Chapter 2 – Principles of Low-Tech Process-Based Restoration

First introduction of Principles of Riverscape Health into literature.

Chapter 3 – Planning for Low-Tech Process-Based Restoration image

Chapter 3 – Planning for Low-Tech Process-Based Restoration

Introduction to setting objectives and doing resource inventory and analysis for LTPBR projects - precursor to what and why you would monitor in riverscapes.

Bartelt et al. (2025) image

Bartelt et al. (2025)

Mapping valley bottom inundation patterns from beaver dam activity: A potential proxy for hydrologic inefficiency.

Lecture Modules to Review from Intro to LTPBR Planning Course

Moudle 1J image

Moudle 1J

Low-Tech PBR Principles

Moudle 3C image

Moudle 3C

Reading Riverscapes & Mapping the Valley Bottom

Moudle 3D image

Moudle 3D

Mapping and Estimating Structural Forcing

Moudle 3E image

Moudle 3E

Resource Inventory & Analysis - Risk Assessment, Condition Assessment & Recovery Space

Moudle 3F image

Moudle 3F

Connecting & Clarifying Objectives & Tying to Goals

Moudle 4F image

Moudle 4F

Putting it all together in the field

Software Requirements

warning

If you did not take the planning course, please review the software installation instructions and ensure you have QGiS, the QRiS plugin, and the Riverscapes Viewer plugin installed and working before the first day of class. If you need help with this, please show up on Monday morning at 8:45 AM instead of 9:00 AM.

Main Assignment

The main outcome of this workshop is to complete a riverscape health monitoring analysis with multi-temporal monitoring at a site of your choosing. For this class, you will be expected to complete this for your own site, with data you collate and you create.

You will:

  1. Prepare new data capture events for your site for imagery from at least 3 to 4 snapshots in time. You will digitize data in data capture evens on the basis of what you can see from that imagery (or optionally if you have field data you can import it).
  2. Combining your data capture events to perform an analysis through time, as well as space as broken into discrete reaches. You will calculate metrics for each time period and changes between time periods. Produce maps, tables and graphs to present your findings.
  3. Create a small report as a PDF, and added as an attatchment to your Riverscapes Studio Project. Your report should follow a standard format (Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions, References) and include:
    • Introduction: Brief introduction to the site and why monitoring beaver dams is important to riverscape health.
    • Methods: Description of how you created your DCEs, how you digitized dams, and how you calculated metrics.
    • Results: Maps, tables and graphs of your findings.
    • Discussion: Interpretation of your results. What do they mean for riverscape health at Spawn Creek? What are the limitations of your analysis?
    • Conclusions: Summary of key findings and their implications for future monitoring and management at Spawn Creek.
    • References: Cite any sources you used in your report.
  4. Upload your analysis as a QRiS Project by exporting as Riverscapes Studio Project and publish to the Data Exchange.
  5. Present a 10 minute presentation on Thursday of your findings to the class.
  6. Post a link to your presentation and Riverscapes Studio Project in the Riverscapes Consortium Community.

Formative Homework - Spawn Creek

  1. Prepare new data capture events for Spawn Creek for imagery from 2006, 2021 and 2024. You will digitize beaver dams using basemaps provided to you. For extra credit (or a good feeling), you can figure out how to do a fourth DCE From 2025 in Google Earth and import it. Digitize beaver dam locations using the Structural Element survey in the LTPBR V2 Protocol in each DCE.
  2. Combining your data capture events with those we provided to you (from 2011, 2014, 2016 & 2017), perform an analysis of beaver dam activity for all of Spawn Creek as well as broken into discrete reaches. You will calculate the following metrics for each time period and changes between time periods:
  • Number of dams
    • Density of dams (dams/km)
    • Change in number of dams
    • Change in density of dams
  1. Produce maps, tables and graphs to present your findings.
  2. Create a small report as a PDF, and added as an attatchment to your own Spawn Creek Riverscapes Studio Project.
  3. Upload your analysis as a QRiS Project by exporting as Riverscapes Studio Project and publish to the Data Exchange.
  4. Post a link to your Riverscapes Studio Project in the Riverscapes Consortium Community. You will compare your numbers with that of your peers.

Resources

Class Recordings

See Canvas for all Zoom recordings.

Community Resources

These communities from the Riverscapes Consortium are great places to ask questions, connect with colleagues and share your work.

Advanced CEWA LTPBR Series Community image

Advanced CEWA LTPBR Series Community

The community for connecting with others in this class and the advanced series of Adavanced LTPBR courses.

Riverscapes Studio Users image

Riverscapes Studio Users

Community of QRiS Users. Stay up to date on latest releases, webinars, trainings, ask questions and share your work.

LTPBR of Riverscapes - Practitioner Community image

LTPBR of Riverscapes - Practitioner Community

This community is intended to facilitate exchange between practitioners of LTPBR anywhere in the world.

Assignment Resources

Reading Riverscapes - Spawn Creek image

Reading Riverscapes - Spawn Creek

A virtual field tour of Spawn Creek to help you get familiar with the site.

In Class Exercises

Data for Exercises

tip

You are welcome to download these projects as we use them in class, or download them all ahead of time. We suggest downloading them somewhere easy to navigate to (and making a favorite shortcut to that folder in QGIS) such as c:/0_RS/CEWA6628/.

Also, the cards below generally link to collections of Riverscape Studio Projects in the Riverscapes Data Exchange with two or more projects. There tends to be larger projects with all the base imagery, and smaller projects without. For most exercises, you only need the smaller "exercise" projects. The "final" projects are provided for reference.

QRiS Example Projects

Spawn Creek image

Spawn Creek

Demo project on Spawn Creek (tributary to the Logan River) in Northern Utah. This project was created to track beaver dams over time after the introduction of a cattle exclosure fence in 2006. This is an example of a passive LTPBR project where the combination of a change in grazing management with a beaver trapping closure was the restoration action.

Bailey Flat image

Bailey Flat

Demo project in South Central Oregon. This multiphase project was created to show how multiple DCEs from monitoring efforts result in an analysis of metrics.

Willow Springs image

Willow Springs

Demo project on Wychus Creek in Sisters, Oregon. This project was curated to explore how QRIS stores and organizes multiple phases of Designs, As-Builts, and DCEs.

Birch Creek image

Birch Creek

Demo Project in Southern Idaho. This project spans many years with the goal of using beaver to return perennial flow to Birch Creek, a simple but effective example of organizing data and keeping track of a timeline in QRIS.

Upper Thirtymile image

Upper Thirtymile

Monitoring project in Northeastern Oregon. This project was created to assess riverscape features from aerial imagery in June of 2019 and October of 2020 and compare riverscape changes at two reach locations (Irzik to Badger Canyon and Comstock Basin) after implementation in 2022.

Upper Bear image

Upper Bear

Demo project on Upper Bear watershed in northeastern Utah. This demo project shows different forms of monitoring at reach and watershed scales to calculate riverscape metrics.

Henry's Fork image

Henry's Fork

Demo project on Henry's Fork watershed in Utah/Wyoming. This demo is designed to illustrate the difference between intrinsic metrics and metrics related to condition, and the two types of analysis that can be performed in QRiS.

1. Quick Introduction to using QRiS - Example of Birch Creek

Birch Creek Exercise 1 (new project, digitize dams, SF, analysis)

Here we are going to dive right in without any real explanation, just to get you working inside QRiS. Download the Birch Creek without Imagery - Project from the Data Exchange and load it in QRiS within QGIS.

Birch Creek image

Birch Creek

Demo Project in Southern Idaho. This project spans many years with the goal of using beaver to return perennial flow to Birch Creek, a simple but effective example of organizing data and keeping track of a timeline in QRIS.

  1. Click on QRIS logo and select Project > + New QRIS Project. Give it a name and save location and click ok.
  2. Right click on Data Capture Events node and select + Add New Data Capture Event. In the dialog box that pops up do the following:
    1. Give the DCE a name
    2. Make sure the box next to SHow Experimental Protocols is checked.
    3. In Available Layers locate the Beaver Protocol and select the Beaver Dam Survey layer and click Add.
    4. Click OK.
  3. Right click the Beaver Dam Survey layer and select Add to map.
  4. Begin an edit session and start digitizing dam locations and fill out the form that pops up for each poin to add information about the dam at each digitized location. When finished save the edits.
  5. Right click on the Riverscapes node and select Create New (manually digitized) Valley Bottom. Add that layer to the map and begin an edit session and digitize a Valley Bottom that encompasses all the dams you previously digitized.
  6. Right click on the Analyses node and select + Add New Anlysis. Give it a name, select your previously digitized valley Bottom as the Analysis Mask. Set all metrics and indicators to None using the button in the bottom right. Then find the Total Dam Count metric and change it from none to Metric. Click Ok to open the analysis form.
  7. Click Calculate and leave the defaults in the pop up window and click ok to calculate dam cout within your valley bottom that was used as the sample frame.

2. Review of River & Riverscape Monitoring Concepts

Indicator Template Resources

An example template based on Table 3.1 on page 8 of Chapter 3 of the LTPBR Design Manual. is provided below.

Resource TypeSuggested Resource LinkNotes or Alternative Resource
Project Indicator Template Condition Worksheet.xlsxThis is an excel template worksheet for populating active channel, active floodplain, vs. inaccessed floodplain mapping of your valley bottom as a means of cataloging condition and estimating recovery space and constraining design. To the extent possible, you will be using QRiS Analyses to populate these tables (one for every sample frame or reach).

Overview of Project Indicator Template

This 7 minute video gives an over of the condition worksheet (from Capstone class and different example project).

tip

Warning, most people grasp the idea of choosing the rows for this table (i.e. metrics and indicators) fairly quickly. They then realize that planning is essentially three columns of this table: existing conditions, estimated historic (for reference) and estimated future conditions (i.e. recovery space). Most tend to grasp the concept of recovery space being limited by estimated histroic too. What confuses people most is how many tables they will end up with. You have a separate table for every sample frame or area of interest you choose as the spatial extent of your analysis.

Some think, all I need is one table for my entire property or project area. This may be simple and fine in some cases, but it often makes it difficult to differenatiate important spatial differences in condition and recovery space across the project area. This is why we often have multiple sample frames.

3. Review of Riverscape Health

4. Introduction to using QRiS - Example of Birch Creek

Here, we will pick up the same Birch Creek project from Exercise 1, but work more slowly through a LTPBR story and the specific steps so you can start to learn how we can do riverscape health monitoring for an action-effectiveness LTPBR monitoring example.

Of course the real stories of Brich Creek our best told by Jay Wilde, Ben Goldfarb (author of "Eager") and a slough of documentary film makers, reporters and interviewers.

A. Birch Creek Demo and Project Overview (Exercise 2- the story in QRiS format)

B. Birch Creek Exercise 3 (RIM DCE)

  1. Open the project you created in Exercise 1.
  2. Right click on the previously created DCE and select Properties.
  3. Make sure the Show Experimental Protocols box is checked in [Settings](https://qris.riverscapes.net/software-help/toolbar/#settings) .
  4. Browse in available layers to the LTPBR protocol and selct the Inudation Extents layer and click Add. Scroll to the River Inundation Mapping protocol and select the Dam Crests layer and click Add. Click OK.
  5. Individually digitize those two layers.
  6. Right click on your previously created analysis and click Properties.
  7. Find the metrics related to ponded, overflow, and free flowing inundation types and change them from None to Metric and click OK.
  8. Right click the analyis again and select Open Analysis.
  9. Now you can select Calculate and redo the calculation to calculate the metrics associated with the new layers you just digitized.

In QRiS, metrics can be categorized as either intrinsic or condition-related. Intrinsic metrics are those that describe the inherent characteristics of the riverscape, or the boundary conditions within which distinct river types form. These include things like valley width, area, and length. Condition-related metrics, on the other hand, describe the current state or condition of the riverscape. Many of these types of metrics use intrinsic metrics as a basis for normalization or comparison, allowing for a more accurate assessment of the riverscape's condition.

Understanding the distinction between these types of metrics is crucial for effective riverscape monitoring and assessment. Understanding the intrinsic metrics of the riverscape can help inform which metrics are appropriate for use as indicators of condition, the expected range of those metrics, and how they should be monitored through time.

  1. Download the demo Henry's Fork QRiS Project. Open the project in QRiS. The project contains several surfaces: NAIP imagery from 2009, 2019, and 2024, and a 10 m digital elevation model (and associated hillshade); these will be the basis for the digitization you will do.
  2. Using the combination of imagery and DEM, digitize a riverscape extent within the Area of Interest (AOI) polygon in the project. Right click on the Riverscapes node and click Create new manually digitized valley bottom. Give it a name and check the box for 'Start Edit Session'. Draw what you assess to be the full extent of the valley bottom. Save your edits and stop editing when you are done.
  3. Right click on the valley bottom node in the QRiS tree and click on Generate Centerline. Select the riverscape polygon feature you drew to populate the 'Polygon Layer' and 'Polygon Feature' fields. Then, click the Capture button for the 'Start of Centerline', click and drag to draw a cross section at the upstream end of your valley bottom polygon (making sure to cross the valley bottom extent on both sides). Repeat for the downstream end. Then, click Generate Centerline and save the centerline.
  4. Right click on the riverscape node you created again, and this time go to Analyses and click on Create Intrinsic Analysis. Give it a name (e.g., Intrinsic Metrics), and make sure the valley bottom (riverscape), centerline, and DEM are correctly selected. Click OK. Then in the QRiS Analysis window that pops up, you can click Calculate... to calculate all of the metrics selected on the prior screen.
  5. Now we will create three data capture events and map some riverscape elements that will allow us to calculate some metrics that are relevant to condition of the riverscape. The first DCE will be based on the 2009 NAIP imagery, the second will be based on the 2019 NAIP imagery, and the third on the 2024. In all three, you will digitize channel centerlines and active floodplain extents. Right click the Data Capture Events node and select Add New Data Capture Event. Give it a name and select two layers from LTPBR Protocol > LTPBR Protocol Layers > Observations > Geomorphic Mapping: 1) Channel > Active Channel Lines, 2) Floodplain > Active Extents. In the surfaces tab, associate the data capture event with the correct NAIP image by checking the box for that image, then click OK (you can also add a description, metadata etc.). Add the newly created layers to the map and digitize them using the associated NAIP image. Map each distinct channel centerline, attributing it as primary or non-primary, and then digitize the extents of what you estimate to be active floodplain. Repeat for the 2019 imagery and then for the 2024 imagery.
  6. After completing the DCEs, create a new analysis to calculate condition-related metrics. Right click on the Analyses node and choose Create a New Analysis. Then choose these metrics: 'LTPBR Protocol' > 'Geomorphic': Relative Flow Length, Proportion Active Valley Bottom, Primary Channel Length, Number of Active Channels, Channel Sinuosity, Channel Length. Calculate the metrics for all three years. You can then alternate back and forth to see how the riverscape has changed in that time period. Has the active channel changed, and if so how? Has the area you estimate to be active floodplain changed and if so how? Note that these metrics use intrinsic metrics of the riverscape as a basis for normalization (i.e., they're the denomator in calculations). For example proportion active floodplain divides the mapped active floodplain by the total riverscape area, and relative flow lenght divides the total mapped channel length by the riverscape length. The intrinsic metrics are stable over long time periods and govern the range of CONDITION metrics that are possible (i.e., in a narrow confined valley, the total possible range for relative channel length is much narrower than in a broad, unconfined valley). The intrinsic metrics can help to understand the riverscape and set the basis for what metrics makes sense to monitor, and what expected ranges of those metrics could be.
  7. After completing the Analysis, you can also right click on it in the QRiS tree and select Analysis over Time to graphically investigate how the chosen metrics have changed across the three data capture events.

5.Concept of Protocols in QRiS

Protocols can help you and your organization unlock the power of data capture and analysis with QGIS Riverscapes Studio (QRiS).

QRiS provides a flexible and consistent framework for digitizing and managing riverscape data. QRiS is built to help with riverscape analysis, monitoring, assessment, LTPBR design preparation, and capturing as-built LTPBR designs.

Webinar on Protocols in QRiS for more Information

Watch QRiS Webinar on Protocols image

Watch QRiS Webinar on Protocols

September 22, 2025 Webinar - hosted by the Riverscapes Consortium

How to Build your own Protocols image

How to Build your own Protocols

Advanced topics for when you want to roll your own.

6. LTPBR V2 Protocol Overview

The first protocol that was built into QRiS was the Weber et al. (2024) Low-Tech Process-Based Restoration Design and Monitoring Protocol: Standard Methods for Developing Project Designs and Assessing Riverscape Health. Version 2.0. or LTPBR V2 Protocol. This protocol contains a suite of layers for mapping riverscape features important to LTPBR design and monitoring. **It is not the only way to monitoring riverscape health!*. There are many other protocols available in QRiS including the Riverscape Inundation Mapping Protocol and others that may be more appropriate for your monitoring needs. However, the LTPBR V2 protocol is a good starting point for learning how to monitor riverscape health in QRiS. There is a difference between the "protocol" as it exists in QRiS and the published protocol document.

  • Weber N., Wheaton J.M., Shalcross A., Al-Chokhachy R, Bailey P., Bartelt K., Bennett S., Bouwes B., Bouwes N., Gilbert J., Dickard M., Heitke J., Jordan C., Glassic H., MacFarlane W.W., Miller S., Saunders C., Whitehead K. 2024. Low-Tech Process-Based Restoration Design and Monitoring Protocol: Standard Methods for Developing Project Designs and Assessing Riverscape Health. Version 2.0. Prepared by Anabranch Solutions and Utah State University Riverscapes Assessment and Monitoring Lab. Prepared for the Bureau of Land Management. Logan, UT. 81 pp. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.13769899
Publication: LTPBR V2 Protocol image

Publication: LTPBR V2 Protocol

The Weber et al. (2024) published protocol document describing the LTPBR V2 methods.

QRiS Protocol: LTPBR V2 image

QRiS Protocol: LTPBR V2

The reference page for the LTPBR V2 protocol in QRiS.

We will now use Willow Springs (primarily) to walk through the different aspects of the protocol.

7. Working through LTPBR V2 Protocol with Willow Springs

Willow Springs image

Willow Springs

Demo project on Wychus Creek in Sisters, Oregon. This project was curated to explore how QRIS stores and organizes multiple phases of Designs, As-Builts, and DCEs.

Details

Willow Springs Through Time Some drone footage of Willow Springs through time showing the changes in the riverscape after LTPBR implementation. After Phase 1:

After Second Flood following Phase 1:

After Phase 2:

A. Channel Junction Mapping

B. Active Channel Lines Mapping

C. Active Channel Extents Mapping

D. Structural Elements Mapping

E. Dam Crest Mapping

F. Jam Area Mapping

G. Inundation Extents Mapping

H. Vegetation Extents Mapping

I. Active Extents Mapping

J. Geomorphic Units Mapping

K. Final LTPBR mapping Overview

8. Other Examples

Below we will use a mix of different examples from other projects to highlight different aspects of LTPBR action-effectiveness monitoring. For a little more information on these proejcts, see this presentation from Anabranch Solution's Gus Wathen, in wihch he provides an overview of many of these projects.

Bailey Flat

Bailey Flat image

Bailey Flat

Demo project in South Central Oregon. This multiphase project was created to show how multiple DCEs from monitoring efforts result in an analysis of metrics.

Details

Bailey Flat in Flood Following Phase 2 Some drone footage of Bailey Flat through time showing the changes in the riverscape after two rounds of LTPBR implementation.

Upper Bear

Upper Bear image

Upper Bear

Demo project on Upper Bear watershed in northeastern Utah. This demo project shows different forms of monitoring at reach and watershed scales to calculate riverscape metrics.

Upper Thirtymile

Upper Thirtymile image

Upper Thirtymile

Monitoring project in Northeastern Oregon. This project was created to assess riverscape features from aerial imagery in June of 2019 and October of 2020 and compare riverscape changes at two reach locations (Irzik to Badger Canyon and Comstock Basin) after implementation in 2022.

9. Spawn Creek Final Assignment & Exercises

Spawn Creek image

Spawn Creek

Demo project on Spawn Creek (tributary to the Logan River) in Northern Utah. This project was created to track beaver dams over time after the introduction of a cattle exclosure fence in 2006. This is an example of a passive LTPBR project where the combination of a change in grazing management with a beaver trapping closure was the restoration action.

Reading Riverscapes - Spawn Creek image

Reading Riverscapes - Spawn Creek

A virtual field tour of Spawn Creek to help you get familiar with the site.

A. Spawn Creek Exercise part 1 - GE to QRIS

B. Spawn Creek Exercise part 2 - sample frames and analysis