Figure 1. The Bund area of Shanghai. Many of the buildings in this area are constructed on filled wetlands, much of which was built in the 1980’s. Photo credit: Heath Kelsey.

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The Tennessee River Basin Report Card was released in February this year. It was made possible in large part because of feedback the IAN team solicited during the Tennessee River Basin Planning Network (TRBN) meeting in Chattanooga, Tennessee in August, 2017. Discussions we had at that meeting decided several issues related to the report card scope and detail that carried through to the finished product.

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The Healthy Rivers for All Partnership spent some quality time last week brainstorming about how our report card projects are perceived. We take it for granted that the report card process increases engagement and leads to great outcomes. We talk about how great report cards are all the time, and we believe it! Positive outcomes are documented through a comprehensive survey of groups that have completed a report card process.

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The first Yucatán Coast Report Card was released in April 2018, the culmination of almost 2 years of work by our colleagues at Laboratorio Nacional de Resiliencia Costera (LANRESC), in Sisal, Yucatán Mexico. The project kicked off with a stakeholder workshop that Jane Hawkey and I helped facilitate in August 2016. The long-term collaboration has made this report card release especially exciting.

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Bill Dennison and I visited Cork, Ireland at University College Cork from March 26-28 to help facilitate a discussion among Regionals Seas Leadership, Future Earth Coasts, and United Nations Environment. Our goal was to help outline a new collaborative process to enhance the transition to more sustainable coasts.

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Report Card Training for WWF Zambia … Lusaka, Zambia February 24-26 2018 … The first report card project in Africa was kicked off in Lusaka, with a training workshop hosted by Chanda Kumwenda at WWF. Michele Thieme /(WWF US), Simon Costanzo, and I facilitated a four-day training workshop covering the 5 major steps to creating a report card for the Lower Kafue River. The final day was devoted to science communication.

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In February 2018, Simon Costanzo, Michele Thieme and I travelled to Lusaka, Zambia to kick off a project to develop an ecosystem health report card for the Lower Kafue River Basin. We provided training for the WWF Zambia team on the report card creation process. I then traveled with the WWF team to Monze in the Southern Province to help the team facilitate first stakeholder workshop.

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As we’ve pioneered new ways to develop ecosystem health assessments and report cards, we’ve learned a few lessons on what makes them successful and what does not. The most successful projects (those that continue on after our involvement, creating lasting impact) are those in which we’ve approached the process as a true partnership with colleagues from diverse backgrounds, areas of expertise, and perspectives.

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My perceptions about where innovations in report cards are heading in Australia and the US. The foundations of these report cards are similar, but influences have caused the two groups to go in slightly different directions. Both appear to be very valuable. Image credit Heath Kelsey … The report cards developed from each group have common characteristics, but focus on different strengths.

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Bill Dennison, Simon Costanzo and I made our annual pilgrimage to Riversymposium in September 2017 for the 20th anniversary of the event. This year the conference was back in Brisbane, Australia (it was held in Delhi in 2016). This is one of my favorite conferences, maybe because the City of Brisbane has become so comfortable for me, but I think it’s really the quality of the content, the clear focus on practices that create real impact, and the wonderful people I get to meet.

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