Integrating monitoring design and analysis in an informal consortium environment
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Ambient aquatic monitoring programs rarely exist in isolation. Commonly, other programs operate nearby or overlap spatially either partially or completely. In some cases, an informal consortium emerges where participants exchange ideas about sharing information. Programs may continue to operate independently, incorporating information learned from others. Or they may initiate efforts to improve the ability of programs to share information or to integrate explicitly their program with others. Regardless, the desire is to increase the return on investment in the programs. From a statistical perspective, these efforts can be related to each program’s spatial, temporal, response and inference design, i.e., STRIDe. The STRIDe structure provides a framework to organize discussions and decisions that must be made when sharing information or integrating programs. Examples associated with the US EPA’s National Aquatic Resource Surveys are used to illustrate how STRIDe has and can be used to integrate programs.