ET-1A (2/1/05 version)
Hierarchy Of Indicators

Figure 1 is patterned after a model developed by USEPA and has been tailored to recognize levels of indicators that can be linked to the general progression of NPS-related actions in Ohio. Each target in the NPS Plan 2005-2010 has been tagged with one of the levels below. This has been done to more clearly identify how Ohio will evaluate the effectiveness of NPS-based water quality management planning and implementation, monitoring and assessment, reporting, and NPS Programs.

Figure 1. Hierarchy of administrative and environmental NPS indicators

Administrative		LEVEL 1	Actions taken by NPS partners	Funding decisions, watershed action plan, source water protection plan, HSTS plan, comprehensive nutrient management plan (CNMP), and/or AMDAT development, cost-sharing for management practice implementation, TMDL targets established, etc.
Environmental Restoration		LEVEL 2	Responses by local watershed groups	Plan/TMDLrestoration recommendations implemented
		LEVEL 3 Stressor Indicator	Changes in activity impacts to streams	Pollutant loadings, habitat quality
		LEVEL 4 Exposure Indicator	Changes in ambient conditions	Water quality, habitat (as measured by QHEI), flow, stream morphology
		LEVEL 5 Exposure Indicator	Changes in uptake and assimilation of pollutants
		LEVEL 6 Response Indicator	Changes in ecological conditions	Attainment: Photo 1 (JPG 332kb), Photo 2 (JPG 405kb) as measured by the Index of Well Being (IWB),(PDF 1164kb) Index of Biotic Integrity (IBI) (PDF 1164kb), and/or Invertebrate Community Index (ICI) (PDF 801kb).