Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP)

The "Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP)" was developed in
1988 for the purpose of estimating the current status, changes, and trends in
indicators of the condition of the nation's ecological resources on a regional
basis; monitoring of indicators of pollutant exposure and habitat condition;
identifying associations between human-induced stresses and ecological
condition; and generation of periodic statistical summaries and interpretive
reports on status and trends to resource managers and the public. The EMAP
networks will provide statistically unbiased estimates with quantifiable
confidence limits over regional and national scales for periods of years to
decades.

Six broad ecological resource categories have been defined within EMAP:
near-coastal waters, inland surface waters, wetlands, forests, arid lands, and
agroecosystems. Within each of these categories, EMAP is determining the
ecological resource categories and resource sampling units that will be
assessed in a series of annual surveys. Indicators of response, exposure,
habitat, and stressors will be defined. These will determine the types of
environmental assessments that will be conducted, such as biomarkers,
pathogens, bioassays, tissue concentrations, ambient concentrations, exotics,
habitat structure and landscape pattern.

In 1990, EMAP initiated its first demonstration project, a study of estuaries
in the mid Atlantic region. These data will be used for analyses to determine
indices. Additional demonstration projects will be conducted over the next
several years. Full implementation of monitoring in all resources is being
targeted for 1995.