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WETLAND MONITORING AND ASSESSMENT TO SUPPORT DECISION MAKING: A VISION FOR THE FUTURE
Citation:
Kentula, M E. AND R R. Sumner. WETLAND MONITORING AND ASSESSMENT TO SUPPORT DECISION MAKING: A VISION FOR THE FUTURE. Presented at Society of Wetland Scientists, New Orleans, LA, June 8-13, 2003.
Description:
The recent report of the National Research Council on wetland mitigation again highlighted the need for regional watershed evaluation as a context from which to determine the efficacy of past regulatory decisions and to improve the effectiveness of future actions. Collaborative studies are bringing together scientists from the USEPA's Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP), EPA's Regional Offices, state agencies and academia to develop and eventually implement regional monitoring and assessment strategies and tools to report on wetland condition. The overall strategy involves three levels of assessment (landscape, rapid and intensive) which are chosen for use depending on the objective of the assessment, availability of resources, and the degree of confidence needed in the results. Sample design provided by EMAP results in a spatially well-dispersed sample, with each site sampled having a known probability of being selected. This ensures the sample drawn is representative of the wetland resource. The design also provides for adjustments in the results to account for biases in the data that could occur as a consequence of denial of access to private property. Development of guidance on rapid assessment methods is underway involving review and field testing of existing methods. This will result in approaches that use intensive methods to regionalize and validate rapid methods and that customize rapid methods for special uses such as evaluation of mitigation projects. Results from monitoring at the three levels will be used to improve the design and targeting of restoration and to evaluate the effectiveness of mitigation.