Report Organization at a Glance 

Watershed reports form the heart of the report and contain detailed tables, maps, and text.

Navigation Tools at a Glance

Map Locator Tool

Use the map locator to choose a watershed report by clicking on maps of counties and watersheds that show towns and highways as landmarks. (Map locator is also accessible from top button bar.)

Left Side Button Bar

Use this to navigate the major sections of the report, starting with basin and subbasin overviews (What's a subbasin? See this map.). The ranked watersheds list, targeted watersheds list, printable reports, and feedback pages are also available here. The Printable Reports page contains PDF versions of most of the contents of this report, including watershed reports, complete with tables and maps.

Bottom Button Bar

Use these to open pages (or separate windows) containing background for the information presented in this report.

Top Button Bar

This provides access to tools and background information about the assessment report. See below for descriptions of these pages.

Other Elements of the Report

The About This Report page introduces the watershed framework and the report (on top button bar).

The Map Locator Tool lets you choose a watershed report by clicking on maps of counties and watersheds (on top button bar).

The Report Index includes other ways to navigate the report, such as by selecting individual watersheds (by name or by county), and a general index (on top button bar). 

The More Information page provides access to details about the watershed management program, sources of data in the report, and explanations of their significance (on top button bar). This information is also accessible via the bottom border by selecting a help file (to open in your current window) or a help window (to open the same file in a new window). 

The Feedback and Contacts page lists the people working on watershed planning in the basin and invites input and participation (on left button bar).

The Updates page lists corrections or changes made since publication of the report in August 2000.

What Is This Report?

The Kentucky River, with the network of streams and rivers that flow into it, drains an area of more than 7,000 square miles. The basin drained by the Kentucky includes all or part of 41 counties and is home to more than 700,000 people. All the rain that falls on the land in the basin eventually flows into the Kentucky River. This flow of surface water provides 95% of the public water supply for communities in the basin, but the water can be contaminated as it flows over the land as well as by pollution released directly into creeks and rivers. 

Efforts to preserve and improve the health of our waterways can be more effective if they are organized around the units of natural flow. These units are called watersheds because all water that falls on the land within a particular watershed is "shed" to a particular stream. The Kentucky Watershed Management Framework is designed to promote a watershed focus through a five-year cycle of evaluation and action. 

This report is the result of the first three years of watershed management activities in the Kentucky River Basin. It presents the results of data gathering and assessment for each watershed in the basin. That includes the state's monitoring efforts during 1998-1999 and information compiled from diverse other sources. 

The report thus provides a summary of basin conditions that can guide activities over the next several years. See About This Report for more about the role of the assessment report and ranked watershed list in the watershed management process.

The foundation of this document is a set of reports describing each of the 97 watersheds within the basin through maps, text, and tables.  Each watershed report is presented under a section summarizing the subbasin of which it is part. There are five subbasins: the North, Middle, and South Forks of the headwaters region and the Central and Lower subbasins farther downstream. See the Basin Overview section for a map of the subbasins and a summary of conditions in the river basin as a whole. 

Ranked and Targeted Watershed Lists

The Targeted Watershed List designates watersheds for development of watershed action plans or other activities. The Ranked Watershed List represents the first stage of this targeting: a preliminary synthesis of a broad spectrum of data. Together with the assessment report, the Ranked Watershed List constitutes the best available summary of impacts and risks across the basin. 

The Targeted Watershed List is developed from the Ranked Watershed List by taking into account the level of local interest in each watershed, the local priorities, and the technical, financial, and political feasibility of addressing problems and preserving resources in the watershed. The Targeted Watershed List is a blueprint that incorporates both scientific and social dimensions to establish basinwide priorities.