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An overview of the Columbia Habitat Monitoring Program's (CHaMP) spatial-temporal design framework
Citation:
Larsen, D., C. Volk, D. Stevens, Jr., Tony Olsen, AND C. Jordan. An overview of the Columbia Habitat Monitoring Program's (CHaMP) spatial-temporal design framework. South Fork Research, North Bend, WA, 2016.
Impact/Purpose:
Numerous agencies are charged with monitoring the condition of streams and rivers, often with corresponding legislative mandates, but in some cases for reasons other than legislative. Most streams and rivers are considered public resources but their management might fall under a particular agency’s jurisdiction, or multiple agencies might have responsibility for monitoring particular attributes of these systems. The domains of agencies often overlap and cause patchy distributions of monitoring locations. The overlapping monitoring responsibilities among agencies leads to inefficiencies when, as is often the case, agencies do not coordinate their monitoring efforts. Here we illustrate the flexibility in the GRTS-based master sample approach in accommodating design complexity and changing objectives while reserving the statistical integrity of each monitoring program. This approach can lead to cost efficiencies when a master sample is implemented by multiple agencies. The report illustrates implementation approaches that have been successful in the Pacific Northwest. This report contributes to SSWR 3.01.
Description:
We briefly review the concept of a master sample applied to stream networks in which a randomized set of stream sites is selected across a broad region to serve as a list of sites from which a subset of sites is selected to achieve multiple objectives of specific designs. The Columbia Habitat Monitoring Program (CHaMP) selected sites from a regional master sample to develop physical habitat surveys in eight Upper Columbia watersheds focusing on the stream habitat domains of anadromous salmonids and steelhead. The case studies illustrate the flexibility offered by using master samples including meeting multiple objectives and their changes; covering a variety of spatial scales; incorporating previously monitored sites (preferably coming from earlier randomized surveys); and increasing the site density at local scales. A permanent regional master sample database could store information that is available for all master sample sites (e.g., from the extensive geospatial databases currently available), and additional information for sites with a monitoring history. It could also serve as a site repository from which all agencies could draw sites to meet specific monitoring objectives thereby facilitating the integration of monitoring designs. To that end, we also describe the Pacific Northwest Aquatic Monitoring Partnership’s web-based system that allows users to develop designs from master samples, document those designs and store information about site histories. The system allows users to evaluate sites that others have selected to determine relevance for incorporation into their designs facilitating coordination and integration of monitoring designs.
