Wetland monitoring: Reporting

Abstract

Approaches for reporting on monitoring data are presented, focusing on indicators, types of reports (e.g., snapshot, scorecards), scales of reporting (from single wetland to national and international scales), and communication of results. Indicators are symbolic representations for communicating a property or trend in a system. They are used to assess current status, monitor or predict changes in condition, or detect sources of stress. Wetland indicators include indicators for wetland health, fauna and water quality indicators, and indicators describing ecosystem services and economic value. Condition reports describe the state of selected, usually biophysical indicators, often in qualitative terms ("poor," "average," "good") and at the time at which the data was collected. Temporal data is used to report on trends in wetland condition over time. Reporting trends, especially over longer time periods, is critical for separating the impact of human activities from external climatic drivers. The Ramsar Convention requires that ecological character be reported for each listed wetland. While the unit of analysis is often a survey plot within a wetland or a wetland complex, wetland and water managers typically operate at a watershed or ecoregional scale, so reporting of wetland monitoring and assessment is also often at this scale or at the scale of the administrative unit of interest. Reporting needs to communicate methods and indicators for wetland condition and trends effectively to the target specialist or nonspecialist audiences, and the simplicity or complexity of indicators used needs to be appropriate. Reporting needs to address error, uncertainty, and overall confidence in measurements of wetland condition to provide decision makers with a sense of the reliability of the data on which decisions are based.