Skip to main content

Review of EPA's Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program Overall Evaluation (1995) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:

1 Introduction
Pages 11-17

The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.


From page 11...
... Following the Science Advisory Board's advice, EPA established the Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP) "to monitor ecological status and trends, as well as to 1 1
Read the entire page →
From page 12...
... These resource groups are intended to represent ecosystem types or resources of national interest, and to provide a basis for incorporating ecological knowledge into the design of indicators and sampling programs. EMAP Vision and Realities The goal of EMAP from its inception has been to monitor and assess the condition of the nation's ecological resources to contribute to decisions on environmental protection and management.
Read the entire page →
From page 13...
... EMAP has stimulated scientific inquiry and will continue to do so; however, it is not itself a research program, and it probably will not directly add a great deal to our scientific understanding of ecological processes. Research should, how
Read the entire page →
From page 14...
... As currently conceived, the basic regional data collected by EMAP are only the first step in the complex process of providing the necessary information for making informed decisions on environmental protection and management. Additional information will be needed for informed policy decisions if and when status and trend data indicate a potential problem (Thornton et al., ~ 994~.
Read the entire page →
From page 15...
... , and has been briefed by many EMAP officials including field personnel and the technical directors of EMAP's resource components. The committee issued three reports prior to this final review of the program.
Read the entire page →
From page 16...
... The committee also reviewed a stream pilot study and concluded that it was premature for EMAP to embark on the stream pilot study at this time because the sampling strategy is inadequate to characterize stream quality either chemically or biologically. This report also addressed the lack of oversight and involvement of senior scientists from a central management team at EMAP Center, which might have enhanced the scientific rigor of the pilot study.
Read the entire page →
From page 17...
... Chapter 3 discusses the various components of EMAP that apply to all resource groups in EMAP, while Chapter 4 treats the resource components. In some cases, the committee has recently completed and published a review of the component, and only the executive summary of that report is reproduced, with any updates if they are applicable.
Read the entire page →

Key Terms

  • surface waters
  • emap resource
  • stream pilot
  • environmental trends
  • emap documents

  • assessment program
  • geographic coverage
  • selected indicators
  • emap design
  • individual congressional

  • stream quality
  • site selection
  • management team
  • discussed elsewhere
  • landscape ecology

  • human stresses
  • incomplete list
  • sampling approach
  • recently subsumed
  • ecological indicators

  • trend data
  • reviewed approximately
  • originally set
  • reports prior
  • characterize stream

  • fundamental issues
  • regional data
  • provide answers
  • informed policy
  • resource types


    • This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
    More information on Chapter Skim is available.