VI -45 



SECTION 7. THE FUTURE OF THE INVENTORY 



The National Estuarine Inventory was initially intended only to 

 satisfy the needs of the National Estuarine Pollution Study. However, 

 as the project developed, it became apparent that the Inventory, or its 

 lineal descendant, can be of far-reaching value in the estuarine management, 

 research, and study. 



There are many agencies and groups involved both institutional and 

 technical management planning, plan implementation, and research in the 

 coastal zone. They are concerned at all levels--national , regional, 

 state, county, and local. The Inventory automation system is capable 

 of supplying all of these groups with data pertinent to their own 

 different needs with these two advantages: First, available information 

 can be acquired from a single source, providing a baseline of usable 

 information with which the planner can begin work immediately. Secondly, 

 knowledge gaps are identifiable, making it possible for the manager, 

 the scientist or the technician to concentrate study capability in 

 areas of true ignorance, directing their efforts to new or complementary, 

 rather than duplicative, activities. 



There is nothing new or unusual about data storage and retrieval systems. 

 They differ only in the contents that they are written to contain. 

 There are many in the Federal Government, such as the detailed file of 

 oceanographic water quality data maintained by the National Oceanographic 



