Spatially Restricted Surveys over Time for Aquatic Resources

Abstract

Consideration of the natural characteristics of aquatic resources and available frame material has led to the development of new designs for surveying large-scale regions. This paper illustrates survey designs developed to meet the requirements for surveying various aquatic resources, including a finite, discrete population, such as lakes within one or more states; a continuous linear population within a bounded area, such as wadeable streams within one or more states; and a continuous two-dimensional population within a bounded area, such as coastal waters associated with one or more states. We present a unified approach that addresses the differences of the aquatic resources assuming the availability of frame material, such as Geographic Information System (GIS) coverages of the boundary for coastal waters, stream network, and lake locations from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's River Reach File 3, derived from U.S. Geological Survey digital line graph data from 1:100,000 scale maps. The basic design methodology distributes the sample over the spatial extent of the resource domain, and a panel structure can be used to extend the sample through time. Key features for the approach are (1) utilizing survey theory for continuous populations within a bounded area, (2) explicit control of the spatial dispersion of the sample, (3) variable spatial density, (4) nested subsampling, and (5) incorporating panel structures for sampling over time.