A watershed is the entire land area that drains to a particular waterbody. As rain or snow melt moves across the landscape it can pick up harmful pollutants from the variety of land uses within that watershed and deliver them to our lakes and streams. This type of pollution is known as nonpoint source pollution and it is one of the greatest threats to water quality in Northwest Indiana.

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The Northwest Indiana Watershed Management Framework

The 2040 Comprehensive Regional Plan has identified watershed management as a significant implementation strategy to protect and restore our region’s aquatic resources. Using a watershed approach provides a flexible framework for managing water resource quality and quantity within specific drainage areas. The watershed planning process works within this framework by using a series of cooperative, iterative steps to characterize existing conditions, identify and prioritize problems, define management objects, develop protection or restoration strategies, and implement selected actions as necessary.

NIRPC has created a resource document called the Northwest Indiana Watershed Management Framework to assist communities and organizations in developing watershed management plans. The Watershed Framework includes a variety of information to help stakeholders characterize existing watershed conditions for their watershed of interest. It has been organized to follow the Indiana Department of Environmental Managements Watershed Management Plan Checklist requirements as closely as possible. You can view or download chapters of the Watershed Framework below. If you are interested in developing or updating a watershed management plan for your area and would like technical assistance from NIRPC please contact Joe Exl, Senior Water Resource Planner, at 219-762-6060 or jexl@nirpc.org.

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