Toward a National Program for Monitoring Environmental Resources

Abstract

The effective design of field studies requires that sample size requirements be estimated for important endpoints before conducting assessments. This a priori calculation of sample size requires initial estimates for the variability of the endpoints of interest, decisions regarding significance levels and the power desired, and identification of an effect size to be detected. Although many programs have called for use of critical effect sizes (CES) in the design of monitoring programs, few attempts have been made to define them. This paper reviews approaches that have been or could be used to set specific CES. The ideal method for setting CES would be to define the level of protection that prevents ecologically relevant impacts and to set a warning level of change that would be more sensitive than that CES level to provide a margin of safety; however, few examples of this approach being applied exist. Program-specific CES could be developed through the use of numbers based on regulatory or detection limits, a number defined through stakeholder negotiation, estimates of the ranges of reference data, or calculation from the distribution of data using frequency plots or multivariate techniques. The CES that have been defined often are consistent with a CES of approximately 25%, or two standard deviations, for many biological or ecological monitoring endpoints, and this value appears to be reasonable for use in a wide variety of monitoring programs and with a wide variety of endpoints.

Clark County monitoring system

“…Bricker and Ruggiero [1] called for more comprehensive environmental monitoring; suggesting that human beings have an obligation to the environment and creatures in the natural world to act as a steward for the ecosystem affected by their inhabitants. A monitoring program should include regular testing of surface water, groundwater, climate, atmospheric chemicals as well as the impacts of these on natural resources.…”

Combining Accuracy Assessment of Land-Cover Maps With Environmental Monitoring Programs

“…A fully integrated accuracy assessment and environmental monitoring strategy could be applied within the three-tier monitoring framework proposed by the Committee on the Environmental and Natural Resources (CENR) (Bricker andRuggiero 1998, NSTC 1997). The three tiers of the CENR framework are: 1) remotely-sensed data (including satellite imagery, aerial photography, and videography) generating geographically extensive land-cover information, 2) an extensive probability sample of ground-based measurements, and 3) intensive study sites at which experiments are conducted and models developed.…”

The Integrated and Combined (I&C) evaluation system to detect status and trends of the CONECOFOR Permanent Monitoring Plots

“…Well-designed and properly implemented long-term monitoring programs are important in so far as they provide baseline data on natural resources, highlight changes, and permit the creation of a basis for long-term ecological research which is crucial to an understanding of the causes of changes (Bricker & Ruggiero 1998;Innes 1998;Spellerberg 1994). For this reason, the intensive and integrated monitoring of forest ecosystems currently being implemented in Europe (Kleemola & Forsius 2000;EC-UN/ECE 1998;Skjelvåle & Ulstein 1998), and similar programs carried out in North America (e.g.…”