PART VI. DEVELOPMENT OF DATA ON THE ESTUARINE 



ZONE 



Introduction" 



As required by sec. 5(^) of the Clean Water Restoration Act of 

 1966, the National Estuarme Pollution Study, acting on behalf of the 

 Secretary of the Interior — 



* * * shall assemble, coordinate, and organize all existing pertinent informa- 

 tion on the Nation's estuaries and estuarine zones ; carry out a program of 

 investigations and surveys to supplement existing information in representative 

 estuaries and estuarine zones ; and identify the problems and areas where further 

 reseraeh and study are required * * * 



To fulfill both the spirit and the letter of the act, the National Estu- 

 arine Pollution Study acquired and consolidated all available existing 

 information in the form of the National Estuarine Inventory, an auto- 

 mated framework for organizing the tremendously large mass of data 

 assembled. The study conducted investigations and inquiries both to 

 acquire and to develop this available information. As a corollary, the 

 data assembly was also useful in defining areas where data and infor- 

 mation are not available and are needed. The data gaps, in turn, were 

 used in conjunction with state-of-the-art studies designed to identify 

 necessary research and study. 



Consequently, these two phases of the study — assembly of data and 

 definition of research and study needs — ^being so closely related, are 

 presented together in this part of the report. The first chapter discusses 

 the National Estuarine Inventory, its development, and its past and 

 future applications. Chapter 2 points out the major data gaps as shown 

 by the inventory and sets out a program for a needed data acquisition, 

 analysis, and interpretation. 



In chapter 3 the results of the research and study needs investiga- 

 tions are outlined in some detail. 



Two basic programs are outlined in chapters 2 and 3. The first is to 

 satisfy the need for basic data ; that is, numbers and information which 

 can be analyzed and interpreted to give information. The second pro- 

 gram is designed to search for basic knowledge; that is, the under- 

 standing necessary to clearly and unmistakably use the basic data. 



The tying together of what-is-known to show what-is-not-known, 

 is a common denominator in these two programs. Of necessity, some 

 overlap appears, pointing up the fact that the search for knowledge 

 results in data, and the search for data results in knowledge. 



(519) 



42-847 O — 7C 



