Your source protection plan will need regular progress tracking and periodic evaluation – that’s how you’ll know if existing efforts are effective and if dollars spent on your actions are worth it.
Progress tracking is built into the provided source response plan template. This will allow your team to track what components are effective, what ones need improvement or can be eliminated, and what new opportunities can be explored so that the plan can continuously improve.
Table 7 outlines the steps you can follow to evaluate your source protection plan. Check out the Regional District of Nanaimo 10 year review for inspiration.
Table 7: Steps to evaluate your source protection plan
DESIGN A PERFORMANCE CHECKLIST
For each plan objective, organize the list of actions and measurement criteria in a spreadsheet along with a progress checklist to facilitate tracking. Format cells that calculate the cumulative percentage of actions in progress and completed, so that progress can be readily monitored each time the checklist is updated. Decide who will manage the checklist.
TRACK PROGRESS
Record the date when an action is started and completed. Engage your TAC in tracking the actions. Prepare annual reports that detail progress made on the actions, including if they were completed according to schedule or are ongoing.
REVIEW THE PLAN
Review your response plan each year before the annual TAC meeting. How did the plan perform overall? What was accomplished, and which goals fell short? What successes can be built on and where are improvements needed? Undertake a
comprehensive review and update of your full source protection plan (i.e. assessment and response plan) every 5-years or after any major event in the watershed that might impact water.
REVISE THE PLAN
Use the results of your evaluation to make adjustments to the plan
to ensure that source water protection continues to improve.
