Aquatic index of ecological integrity

The index of ecological integrity (IEI) is a measure of relative intactness and resiliency of environmental change. By intactness, we mean freedom from human modifications and human-induced disturbance. By resiliency, we mean ability to remain intact and high quality despite disturbances and climate change. It is a composite index based on 19 different measures of landscape intactness and resiliency. This version of IEI (compare to “weighted index of ecological integrity”) displays values only for aquatic systems as a convenience for users.

For this project, IEI was rescaled to each ecological system, and by HUC6 watershed. In contrast to the terrestrial IEI, the aquatic IEI was not modified by weighting any aquatic systems.

View this product as a web map on Data Basin.

Access this data as a GIS download from the North Atlantic LCC website.

Read the Technical Abstract for this data layer (ieiAquatic.tif).