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	A multi agency project funded by US EPA's STAR Program

Evalutating potential indicators of environmental condition

This flowchart gives a general idea of our path from data collection to development and recommendation of environmental condition indicators.

We are developing two types of indicators:

1. Ecological (state) indicators that directly speak to the condition of the coastal margin ecosystems from several scales, the broad landscape scale to the local scale.

2. Stressor (pressure) indicators that provide information on the anthropogenic (human-influenced) factors influencing the ecological condition.

Both types will be used to develop integrated indicators of environmental condition.

Both multimetric and multivariate approaches will be used in the development of integrated indicators of environmental condition.

The end result will be practical indicators that reliably provide information on the current condition of the Great Lakes coastal margins, whether the ecosystem type is a sandy beach or a wetland.