University of New Hampshire Scholars\u27 Repository
Abstract
During the fall and winter of 2001-2002, the New Hampshire Estuaries Project’s Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) developed a suite of environmental indicators to track progress toward the NHEP’s management goals and objectives. These indicators were fully described in terms of their performance criteria, statistical methods, and measurable goals in the NHEP’s Monitoring Plan, which was most recently updated in March 2003 (NHEP, 2003). The next step is to use these indicators to produce an updated “State of the Estuaries” report by mid-2003. The TAC decided to break this task into three sections: shellfish indicators in the fall of 2002; water quality indicators in the winter of 2002-2003; and land use/habitat indicators in the spring of 2003. For each group of indicators, the NHEP Coastal Scientist would prepare an “Indicator Report” that summarizes the available information and results of statistical tests for each of the indicators. The TAC would review and comment on this report, and then recommend a subset of the most important or illustrative indicators to be presented to the Management Committee. Finally, after being presented to both the TAC and the Management Committee, the indicator charts and interpretation would be incorporated in the State of the Estuaries report. This report is the third of four indicator reports to be presented to the TAC. The focus of this report is the NHEP’s land use and development indicators (see list below). In an effort to be brief, the details of the monitoring programs for each indicator are not included. Please refer to the NHEP Monitoring Plan (NHEP, 2003) for additional details for each indicator
