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THE USE OF EXISTING MONITORING PROGRAM SITES IN A PROBABILITY SURVEY DESIGN - EVALUATION CRITERIA AND EXAMPLES OF NORTHEASTERN US ESTUARIES
Citation:
Paul, J, W B. Galloway, G Pesch, M Charpentier, J Heltshe, D J. Cobb, AND C J. Strobel. THE USE OF EXISTING MONITORING PROGRAM SITES IN A PROBABILITY SURVEY DESIGN - EVALUATION CRITERIA AND EXAMPLES OF NORTHEASTERN US ESTUARIES. Presented at Estuarine Research Federation Conference, Seattle, WA, September 14-18, 2003.
Description:
U.S. EPA's National Coastal Assessment is a five-year effort led by EPA's Office of Research and Development to evaluate the assessment methods it has developed to advance the science of ecosystem condition monitoring. The program is being conducted through strategic partnerships with the coastal states. These states are conducting the survey in their waters with a common set of indicators. The resources that were monitored in 2000-2002 were estuarine waters. A flexible probability survey design was used to incorporate, to the extent possible, existing state monitoring program sites. Three criteria were developed to evaluate the existing state program sites in the northeastern U.S. for possible incorporation into the national design. These criteria were (1) the sites were selected to be representative, (2) the distributions of variables were equivalent to that for probability samples, and (3) the correlation structure of variables was equivalent to that for probability samples. The states of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut conduct fish trawl surveys with stratified random designs, which were directly incorporated into the overall design. Existing monitoring sites for Maine, Long Island Sound, New York, New Jersey, and Delaware Estuary were evaluated and satisfied the established criteria. Detailed example is presented for Long Island Sound water quality sites.