Combining and aggregating environmental data for status and trend assessments: challenges and approaches
Loading...
Author/Creator ORCID
Date
2015
Type of Work
Department
Program
Citation of Original Publication
Maas-Hebner, K. G., Harte, M. J., Molina, N., Hughes, R. M., Schreck, C., & Yeakley, J. A. (2015). Combining and aggregating environmental data for status and trend assessments: challenges and approaches. Environmental monitoring and assessment, 187(5), 1-16, 278.
Rights
This item may be protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. It is made available by UMBC for non-commercial research and education. For permission to publish or reproduce, please contact the author.
Abstract
Increasingly, natural resource management agencies and nongovernmental organizations are sharing monitoring data across geographic and jurisdictional boundaries. Doing so improves their abilities to assess local-, regional-, and landscape-level environmental conditions, particularly status and trends, and to improve their ability to make short-and long-term management decisions. Status monitoring assesses the current condition of a population or environmental condition across an area. Monitoring for trends aims at monitoring changes in populations or environmental condition through time. We wrote this paper to inform agency and nongovernmental organization managers, analysts, and consultants regarding the kinds of environmental data that can be combined with suitable techniques and statistically aggregated for new assessments. By doing so, they can increase the (1) use of available data and (2) the validity and reliability of the assessments. Increased awareness of the difficulties inherent in combining and aggregating data for local-and regional-level analyses can increase the likelihood that future monitoring efforts will be modified and/or planned to accommodate data from multiple sources.