The EDS Toolkit is designed to:
- Characterize and summarize the best-available science for use by diverse hydropower stakeholders seeking to better understand potential hydropower project impacts on the riverine ecosystem.
- Provide transparent and consistent methodology for identifying and discussing potential environmental impacts during hydropower licensing negotiations.
- Point users toward key river function indicators of concern to reduce the time and cost of hydropower licensing negotiations and promote greater certainty in federal authorization processes for hydropower development and relicensing.
The centerpiece of the EDS Toolkit is an online, interactive, and science-based River Function Indicator (RFI) Questionnaire that provides stakeholders with a systematic and transparent method for identifying the potential environmental impacts of a hydropower project.
Suggested process for using the RFI Questionnaire