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The USEPA National Wetland Condition Assessment (NWCA)
Citation:
Kentula, M. The USEPA National Wetland Condition Assessment (NWCA). Meeting of the Delta Independent Science Board, Federal Monitoring Panel, Sacramento, California, July 12, 2018.
Impact/Purpose:
This presentation is an overview of the USEPA, National Wetland Condition Assessment (NWCA) with an emphasis on innovations to the monitoring and assessment of wetlands and other aquatic systems at large scales. The audience is the Independent Science Board of the Delta Stewardship Council of Sacramento and San Joaquin River Delta. This interaction will likely increase interest in the USEPA's National Aquatic Resource Surveys (NARS) and the approaches used in the national surveys of aquatic systems. It may also lead to potential collaborations between the Delta Stewardship Council and NARS.
Description:
This overview of the National Wetland Condition Assessment (NWCA) focuses on three innovations that are central to the success of the NWCA. First is the use of a spatially-balanced probability survey design which allows the extrapolation of the data collected to the NWCA target population in the conterminous US. Second is a quantitative definition of reference which is reproducible. Finally, sampling a fixed area that represents the sample location from the design rather than wetlands. This allows for extrapolation of the data in terms of wetland area.