Develop Data-Collection/Monitoring Program Based on Network Design
Identify data needs and resources relevant to the problem at hand. Using a network-design approach as apropos, identify
- appropriate primary and ancillary data types,
- their collection locations and frequencies, and
- the requisite instruments and human resources,
to ensure that the resulting dataset is
- internally consistent and complementary,
- of maximum relevance to the client,
- collected in the safest manner.
(by the formulator and implementer of small-to medium-scale sediment projects, and as published plans for sediment and nutrient monitoring in the conterminous 48 States and for design of a worldwide sediment data-collection program).
Identify Quality-Control Procedures
Given that data quality is the cumulative result of a series of data-collection and processing activities in addition to the natural in-stream flow and transport processes, identify appropriate steps that will provide quantifiable and qualitative evidence that the monitoring program is adequate for the client’s purposes (by the former USGS Office of Surface Water National Sedimentologist). If field or laboratory work is proposed, recommendations on safety procedures will either be evaluated, or provided by GraySedimentology.
Graphic: Determination of Daily Sediment, Nutrient, and Sediment-Associated Chemical Concentrations and Loads for the Conterminous United States,” 2010, led by J.R. Gray, U.S. Geological Survey, and Charles Shadie, Army Corps of Engineers (proposal)
