The Souther Appalachian Stream Visual Assessment Protocol (saSVAP): THe Customization of a Stream Visual Assessment Protocoal for the Southern Appalachian Region

The original Stream Visual Assessment Protocol (SVAP) was designed in a joint effort between the United States Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resource Conservation Service and the University of Georgia’s Odum School of Ecology and Geography departments, as a nation-wide, user-friendly, qualitative stream assessment tool.  The goals of the saSVAP project are to: (1) customize SVAP for the unique Blue Ridge eco-region of the Southern Appalachian Mountains of Georgia and North Carolina, and (2) to provide a citizen- science tool for stream assessment, environmental education and outreach. Two versions of the saSVAP are currently being developed: The “saSVAP document”; designed for both citizens and those with field experience in streams, and the “saSVAP app”; an interactive digital application designed in collaboration with University of Georgia’s Computer Science Department as a citizen-science tool for riparian land owners, students, and concerned citizens. The ongoing development of the saSVAP includes collaboration between UGA’s Odum School of Ecology and Anthropology Department; the goal being to design tools that can relate human behavior and perception to the ecologically relevant characteristics of stream integrity as measured by a “snap-shot” visual assessment.