About Ottawa
Riverkeeper

Ottawa Riverkeeper, a charitable organisation, is a champion and collective voice for the Ottawa River watershed, providing leadership and inspiration to protect, promote and improve its ecological health and future.

Guided by a science-based approach, we provide clear information with the aim to engage the public and empower citizens and decision-makers, and inspire cooperative action focused toward ensuring clean, healthy, and accessible water for all people and species.

Learn more at ottawariverkeeper.ca!

What is a
Watershed?

A watershed, also known as a catchment or drainage basin, is simply all of the land and waterways that drain towards a single location. Here is another way to think about it: imagine a bathtub. As you add water to the bathtub, no matter where it falls within the bathtub it will eventually flow towards the drain. In a watershed, if water is poured onto the land (such as rainfall), it will eventually flow into a certain body of water (either directly, or via smaller tributaries). That area of land is then part of that body of water’s watershed. 

Every body of water has a watershed, and can in turn be part of another watershed. For example, the area of land that drains into the Gatineau River makes up the Gatineau River watershed. The Gatineau River drains into the Ottawa River though, so all that land is also part of the Ottawa River watershed. The Gatineau River watershed is therefore  considered a sub-watershed of the Ottawa River watershed. The Ottawa River watershed contains several large subwatersheds, and in turn is itself a subwatershed of the St Lawrence River watershed.

A watershed can have many different types of land cover. Forests, wetlands, waterbodies, cities, towns and other developed areas, and agricultural lands are all examples of land cover. The land cover present in a watershed can have an impact on the rivers within it by changing how quickly rainfall moves over the land. Plus, if there are pollutants, nutrients, or sediment, these might be transported to local streams and impact the river’s water quality. Everything within a watershed is connected; what happens in one area can have big impacts on the others.

What does a healthy
watershed look like?

A healthy watershed is one where humans and nature live in balance. That means native species thrive, and their habitat remains intact, even alongside human habitation. 

There are many interconnected factors that influence the ecological health of a river and its watershed. For example, for every watershed there will be normal, healthy ranges of water temperatures, flow volumes and rates, nutrient concentrations, as well as populations of native species. If conditions shift outside of their healthy ranges, or if there is pollution or the introduction of new species, that balance can be disrupted and change the health of the watershed. However, in a system as large and complex as the Ottawa River watershed, there is so much natural variation geographically, temporally, and seasonally, that determining whether the watershed as a whole is healthy or not is a difficult puzzle to solve. If there is pollution in the lower half of the river, but the areas upstream are still clean, is the whole watershed unhealthy? Does the presence of an invasive species in one area change the entire watershed as a whole? The answers to these questions, unfortunately, are not straightforward, but if we can detect and address issues quickly, we can protect other areas. By doing this, we can improve the overall health of the watershed.

This is why Ottawa Riverkeeper is working on a Watershed Health Assessment and Monitoring project. By working with experts, academic researchers, Algonquin communities, and volunteer citizen scientists, this ongoing project aims to collect and analyse data, and share what we learn with you as well as decision-makers. The data collection is focused on 14 indicators of aquatic ecosystem health, and collected throughout the watershed. By working together with lots of different groups and people, and by creating accessible educational tools like this discovery portal, we hope to inspire and empower citizens of the watershed to learn more about the health of the watershed and take actions to protect the incredible Ottawa River.

Presenting
Sponsor

Ottawa Riverkeeper’s Discovery Portal is presented by RBC.

Ottawa Riverkeeper would like to thank the generous support of RBC for making the Discovery Portal possible.

Additional funding for the Watershed Health Assessment and Monitoring initiative comes from:

Visit our website for more information about our partners and funding.