VI-92 



There are the compelling reasons for establishing baseline conditions 

 and for developing background information now. An inventory of all 

 estuarine areas to determine their condition precedes prediction of 

 their potential for supporting valuable living resources along with 

 other desired uses. Ue also need to know what is happening to such 

 areas; how and to what extent they are being altered or threatened. 

 Biological, chemical, and physical baselines must be established as 

 a foundation for further studies and evaluations. Some work of this 

 kind has been done or is under way, but much more remains to be done. 



THE NEED FOR SOCIAL, ECONOMIC, 

 AND DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION 



In the final analysis, the success of a management program is mea- 

 sured in terms of satisfaction of human needs and desires. Thus, 

 the purpose of a management program is to provide the most benefits to 

 the most people with the least amount of conflicting use - in brief: 

 accurate resource evaluation and optimum beneficial resource alloca- 

 tion. The information needed for this is not as clearly definable 

 as it is for technical purposes because the uses, values, and goals 

 are not as quantifiable. This portion of an inventory would detail 

 historical, present, and proposed specific uses and values within 

 the estuarine zone; damages to use from pollution and other causes; 

 demographic distributions and trends; transportation and navigational 

 facilities; industrial installations, imoact, and values; recreational 

 benefits and potential, aesthetic demands; economic values associated 



