Essential Monitor's Guide for Prairie Water Retention

The document outlines the importance of monitoring water retention projects in the Prairies to ensure they meet specifications and to track long-term performance. It emphasizes that monitoring water quantity and quality helps optimize sites for climate adaptation and multiple benefits, including flood mitigation, drought resilience, water quality, biodiversity, and carbon storage. The guide aims to demystify the technical requirements of monitoring by reviewing equipment and analysis methods based on IISD's experience.

• Water retention projects act as natural infrastructure providing primary benefits in flood and drought mitigation, as well as co-benefits including improved habitat, biodiversity, carbon storage, and water quality.
• Monitoring is essential to verify that projects perform to specification over time and to understand how site design, operation, and maintenance influence effectiveness and co-benefits.
• There is currently a lack of long-term data regarding water-quality benefits across diverse sites, which exhibit varying performance levels.

APA

Grosshans,, J. S. (2024). Essential Monitor's Guide for Prairie Water Retention. International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/publications/guide/monitors-guide-prairie-water-retention

Chicago

Grosshans,, Joey Simoes,Richard. Essential Monitor's Guide for Prairie Water Retention. International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2024. https://www.iisd.org/publications/guide/monitors-guide-prairie-water-retention.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Grosshans, |first1=Joey Simoes,Richard |title=Essential Monitor's Guide for Prairie Water Retention |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=6 February 2024 |url=https://www.iisd.org/publications/guide/monitors-guide-prairie-water-retention |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{grosshans2024essential, author = {Grosshans,, Joey Simoes,Richard}, title = {{Essential Monitor's Guide for Prairie Water Retention}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2024}, month = feb, url = {https://www.iisd.org/publications/guide/monitors-guide-prairie-water-retention}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }