dinate amount of effort to correct. Furthermore, if the cause of a 

 priority problem is understood, the conference should develop an 

 "action-now agenda" for early action, redirecting resources from 

 existing programs. 



After specific criteria for the known environmental problems in an 

 estuary have been developed, the problems are ranked to identify 

 which warrant highest priority. These are considered in the remain- 

 ing characterization steps. 



The second step in the characterization process is the collection of 

 "priority data sets" that are 



• Relevant to defining the nature and extent of a priority prob- 

 lem; 



• Pertinent to specific parameters needed to define the prob- 

 lem; 



• Broad in temporal and spatial coverage; 



• Good quality, as indicated by a preliminary assessment; and 



• In a usable format. 



Although extensive information may be available for a particular 

 estuary, the initial selection criterion (relevance) ensures that col- 

 lection efforts focus only on data sets directly related to the priority 

 problems. The second criterion (pertinence) further confines col- 

 lection efforts to data sets containing information important for 

 characterization, such as specific variables and sampling periods. 

 The third criterion (breadth of temporal and spatial coverage) 

 emphasizes data sets with broad temporal or spatial scales as 

 opposed to data sets that represent a narrow time frame or those 

 tfiat are highly site-specific. The fourth criterion focuses on quality 

 assurance to prevent questionable data from influencing the 

 analyses. Finally, the data must be formatted for computer use. 



The goal of the data collection and selection 



process is to identify what combination of 



data sets best provides the information 



needed for estuary characterization. 



Rarely will any single data set rank highly with respect to all 

 selection criteria. Instead, the goal of the data collection and 

 selection process is to identify what combination of data sets best 

 provides the information needed for estuary characterization. 



To help identify the most important data sets, questionnaires 

 frequently are sent to investigators and organizations. A sample 

 data request form used to obtain information related to a priority 

 problem in Long Island Sound appears in Figure 3.2. 



Collection of Priority 

 Data Sets 



27 



