In 2002 RiverLink sought out to develop a website in order to provide citizens, developers, local governments, realtors, home buyers, and science classes with a planning guide that encourages good decisions that would protect and improve the French Broad River Watershed. Funding to create this website was provided by a grant by E-NC. After an exhaustive "Request for Proposal" process, RiverLink selected the Southern Appalachian Man and the Biosphere Foundation (SAMAB), the National Biological Information Infrastructure's Southern Appalachian Information Node (NBII-SAIN), the University of Tennessee, Springhouse (Design studio), and the US Geological Survey to develop and host the French Broad River Watershed map. E-NC considers this as a possible model for other watersheds in North Carolina.

The website is an interactive digital map that will teach people about streams, stream health, toxic sites, regulations, locations of parks, boat launches, and much more.

The vision for this digital map was immense.

Imagine the following: Broadband technology that would empower future and existing homeowners to know the quality of the stream flowing through their property; broadband technology where a developer could access stream classifications or rules/regulations governing a specific waterway; a website that would provide information on the sources of pollution and level of pollutants. Envision a website that identifies how we as a community can access our river via parks, greenways, and the opportunities for economic revitalization.

People want to know about the stream in their backyard. Developers want to know what permits are required. Homebuyers and owners want to know if the stream in their backyard is clean enough for their kids to play in it. And in North Carolina water is a central teaching topic in eighth grade. This website aims to provide these and much more.

Karen Cragnolin, executive director of RiverLink said, "This website is just another example of how the environment and economic development interact and how RiverLink is constantly seeking ways to help the community at large connect the dots between economic prosperity and environmental health".

Democracy is, as Abraham Lincoln said, "of the people, by the people, and for the people." RiverLink, through the creation of an internet database, wants to improve the public's knowledge on issues related to water quality in order to get the public's input and improve decision-making in our region through representative democracy.

Locally, over 60 people, including developers, homebuilders, state and federal agencies, science teachers, realtors, home owners, and other citizens have assisted RiverLink in the development of this website. They did so by reviewing and recommending modifications and additions that would enable and assist them in their jobs and common pursuit of improved water quality. Data layers were chosen based on their usefulness and descriptions were toiled over in order to ensure that the use went beyond the scientist. True data sets collected by the University of North Carolina Asheville were provided in order to help teachers teach trend analysis with real data collected here in our community.

The State of North Carolina administers, every five years, an update of their Basinwide plans. This is when new data, collected by government officials, is collected and compiled for a central database. Thus, RiverLink will work to update this web map every five years. Data, however, is not static and there are community groups collecting data monthly throughout the year. Thus, we have designed this site to be the community's site. Citizens that are collecting information related to the streams in and around the French Broad River are encouraged to share those through this site. This includes streams in the counties of Transylvania, Henderson, Buncombe, Madison, Haywood, Avery, Mitchell, Yancey or those streams in eastern TN that feed into the French Broad. Items could be current or historical photos of the places or events in and around the river, biological or chemical analysis. These can be uploaded using the "Contribute" button. If you are an organization that is doing monitoring or is restoring a stream, we would like to highlight your projects using this feature.

Thus, the goal of this website reaches beyond just basic information. RiverLink would like you to see this as a community website - a place where we can begin understanding and discussing how we have impacted and continue to impact the rivers and each other. It is also a place that can encourage discussion of the opportunities to begin helping the rivers and each other.

RiverLink is a regional non-profit organization focused on the economic and environmental revitalization of the French Broad River.