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

Selecting segments to be sampled

 

 

Developing indicators of environmental condition requires that we sample all the major types of environmental conditions that exist along the Great Lakes coastal margins. Environmental condition and the types of ecosystems and biota found in any given location are affected by both natural and human-influenced (anthropogenic) factors. Collectively, we are calling these factors "environmental variables".

Data on environmental variables for the Great Lakes watershed was used to group coastal margin segments into similar clusters. By sampling at least one site from each cluster, we cover the important environmental gradients influencing Great Lakes coastal margin ecosystems.

More detail on the environmental data analysis and site selection

 

Environmental data

Environmental data were connected to segment sheds using GIS.
These are the types of environmental variables we used to create the clusters of segments.
Click on a variable type to see the entire list of variables.

Stressor Types
Number of Variables
Natural Factors
Number of Variables
Agricultural (incl. chemicals)
21
 Land cover
23
Atmospheric deposition
11
 Coastline attributes
6
Human population & development
14
 Soil characteristics
53
Point source pollution
79
    


The environmental variables were obtained from the following databases:
  • US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS)
    • Agricultural fertilizer and herbicide use (1987 Census of Agriculture)
    • Agricultural runoff (runoff of sediment, pesticides and nitrogen)
    • Land use by type of cropland
    • Erosion from agricultural cropland due to wind and water
    • Fertilizer use on agricultural land
    • Confined animal facility waste treatment applied on the land (Performance and Results Measurement System)
    • Urbanization amount and rate (Natural Resources Inventory)
    • Total amount of wetlands (Natural Resources Inventory)
    • Wetland types, amount of hydric soils, and erosion potential (Natural Resources Inventory)

  • US Census Bureau
    • 2000 census population density
    • Road area (TIGER)

  • National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP)
    • Atmospheric deposition of hydrogen (as pH), sulfate, nitrate, chloride, ammonium, and base cations

  • US Geological Service (USGS)
    • National Land Cover Data (NLCD)
    • Nitrogen and phosphorus runoff potential (SPARROW model predictions from the NAWQA program)
    • Fertilizer use by county

  • US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA)
    • Categories of facilities permitted to discharge wastewater within the Great Lakes basin (National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES))
    • Facilities releasing toxics into the air, water, land, underground or to public water treatment systems (Toxic Release Inventory, 1995)
    • Distance to the nearest Great Lakes Area of Concern (Great Lakes National Program Office (GLNPO))

  • State Soil Geographic database (STATSGO)
    • Soil properties

  • US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)
    • Shoreline alteration (Medium Resolution Vector Shoreline Data (MRV))