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THE SURFACE WATERS COMPONENT OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING AND ASSESSMENT PROGRAM (EMAP): AN OVERVIEW
Citation:
Whittier, T.R. AND S. Paulsen. THE SURFACE WATERS COMPONENT OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING AND ASSESSMENT PROGRAM (EMAP): AN OVERVIEW. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/J-92/397.
Description:
The U.S. EPA is developing a new monitoring program, the Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP), to monitor and assess the ecological health of major ecosystems, including surface waters, forests, near coastal, wetlands, agricultural, and arid lands, in an integrated systematic manner. MAP is designed to operated at regional and national scales for decades and evaluate the extent and condition of entire ecological resources. MAP has a common sampling framework for all resource types which consist of a systematic grid of about 12,500 points in the conterminous U.S. which can be subdivided into sub-grids of varying densities. andscapes characterization via remote imagery will be done on 40 km2 hexagons centered on these points. his 6% sample of the land surface will allow valid extrapolations to describe and quantify the extend of ecological resources. ubset of 3,200 hexagons will be selected for field sampling of surface water resources. our year resampling cycle allows approximately 800 lakes and 800 stream sites to be evaluated annually. cological assessments for surface waters will address three endpoints of concern: ishability, trophic state, and biotic integrity; focusing on biological assemblages, primarily fish, macroinvertebrates and diatoms, as response indicators of ecological condition.