VI-51 

 Chapter 2 



INFORMATION AND DATA NEEDS AS 

 SHOWN BY THE NATIONAL ESTUARINE INVENTORY 



No management program can be effective without adequate knowledge of 

 the environment to be managed. This is especially true in the 

 estuarine zone where the biophysical, the socioeconomic, and the 

 institutional environments are so intimately connected and 

 interdependent. 



The Inventory contains much information on these three separate but 

 interlocked environments. However, as has been pointed out, it also 

 contains large areas v/here the required data have not been available. 

 While the data and information required to fill these gaps are 

 important in themselves, it is in their interrelationships that their 

 real importance lies. There is nothing straight-forward in combined 

 consideration of the biophysical, the socioeconomic, and the 

 institutional environments, yet this consideration produces the 

 fundamental rules which guide the course of technical management. 



The information gathering and study program shown necessary by the 

 Inventory is intended to serve one purpose. That is to increase 

 knowledge of the estuarine zone enough to use, develop and preserve 

 the estuarine resource for maximum use without undue damage now or in 

 the future. This program makes no attempt to obtain all knowledge 

 on the study area; it is directed toward management needs, and 



