CHAPTER 2. INFORMATION AND DATA NEEDS AS 

 SHOWN BY THE NATIONAL ESTUARINE INVENTORY 



No management program can be effective without adequate knowl- 

 edge 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 where the required data have not been avail- 

 able. While the data and information required to fill these gaps are 

 important in themselves, it is in their interrelationsips that their real 

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

 sideration 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 knowl- 

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

 therefore basic data collection and studies to supply basic data are the 

 key features. A study program such as that presented here can be 

 effective in management only if carried out as an integrated part of 

 the overall management program. 



Section 1. Nonexistent Data 



Compilation of the inventory revealed that a great many kinds of 

 essential information have never been collected in sufficient detail or 

 with a geographical coverage large enough to be useful in overall 

 management planning, even in resource utilization planning for small 

 estuarine management units. 



Many studies of estuarine environments have been carried out, but 

 these have almost always been done or supported by mission-oriented 

 agencies whose activities are directed toward the achievement of spe- 

 cific objectives. The extremely dynamic conditions usually prevailing 

 within estuarine systems, combined with personnel and budget limi- 

 tations, often prevents the collection of all but the most essential 

 information. 



For example, in an enforcement field study intended to determine 

 the damages resulting from shellfish bed closures, the essential inves- 

 tigations would require the study of sources of pollution, their effects 

 on water quality, shellfish habitat damage, and economic damage to 



(546) 



