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In order to serve its purpose as a management tool, tMs data base 

 must satisfy five broad requirements. These requirements are: (1) 

 baseline loiowledge of biological, physical, and chemical data describ- 

 ing the estuarine zone, (2) knowledge of the institutional framework 

 governing each portion of the estuarine zone, (3) knowledge of the 

 demographic, social, and economic factors and their trends affecting 

 the estuarine zone, (4) an establishment of goals and uses so that 

 future studies can be relevantly oriented, and (5) an augmentation 

 and synthesis of the previous four adequate to permit estuarine man- 

 agement. The next portion of this section will discuss each of these 

 requirements in greater detail. 



THE NEED FOR BASELINE STUDIES OF BIOLOGICAL, PHYSICAL., AND 

 CHEMICAL FACTORS DESCRIBING THE ESTUARINE ZONE 



The need for baseline studies is so basic and so obvious that it fre- 

 quently is overlooked. Simply stated, a physical, chemical, and biolog- 

 ical inventory must be conducted of all important estuaries and as 

 many as possible of those of lesser importance. The purpose of such 

 inventories would be to establish conditions as they are now ; a baseline 

 against which to determine the nature, extent, and rate of any future 

 change. Research programs ensuing from this information would be 

 addressed toward two basic questions: (1) what forces and combina- 

 tion of factors made each estuary the way it is, and (2) what must be 

 done to make (or keep) each estuary the way we want it to be. 



These are the compelling reasons for establishing baseline condi- 

 tions 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. We 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 underway, 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 meas- 

 ured 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, impact, and values; recreational benefits and 

 potential, esthetic demands ; economic values associated directly with 

 the estuarine zone ; sport and commercial fishing use and value ; home 

 development, and the alternatives and potential of as yet undiscovered 

 parts of the estuarine zone. 



