A goal of the New Hampshire Estuaries Project (NHEP) and its monitoring program is to promote a cooperative effort by all agencies and organizations who participate in monitoring activities, in order to maximize the usefulness of current monitoring efforts and available data. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to effectively manage the large volume of existing information as well as new information that will be developed through the NHEP monitoring program. Data and information about NH's estuaries now exists in multiple formats within a variety of organizations. Existing monitoring programs are designed to meet the missions of the various implementing organizations. The organizations use different procedures and protocols for data collection, analysis, storage, and reporting. Coordination of data management among organizations is currently limited. This Data Management Plan contains protocols for data reporting to the NHEP to facilitate data integration. Different protocols will be applied to different types of data (e.g., chemical, geospatial, and biological). The protocols will be considered contract requirements for NHEP monitoring programs and recommended guidelines for other partners. This plan also includes protocols for conducting quality assurance tests on water quality data to ensure the integrity of the NHEP indicators.