Sampling design workflows and tools to support adaptive monitoring and management

Authors: Stauffer, Nelson; DUNIWAY, MICHAEL - Us Geological Survey (USGS); KARL, JASON - University Of Idaho; NAUMAN, TRAVIS - Us Geological Survey (USGS)

Submitted to: Rangelands
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/26/2021
Publication Date: 9/30/2021
Citation: Stauffer, N.G., Duniway, M., Karl, J., Nauman, T. 2021. Sampling design workflows and tools to support adaptive monitoring and management. Rangelands. 44(1):8-16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rala.2021.08.005.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rala.2021.08.005

Interpretive Summary: Adaptive land management requires monitoring of resource conditions which requires choices about where and when to monitor a landscape. Designing a sampling design for a monitoring program can be broken down in to eight steps: identifying questions, defining objectives, selecting reporting units, deciding data collection methods, defining the sample frame, selecting an appropriate design type, deciding stratification and allocation, and identifying the required sampling effort. Here, we provide descriptions of each step in the process and identify tools and resources to complete each step.

Technical Abstract: Adaptive land management requires data about resources in order to drive decision making. Data collection, in turn, requires a sampling design: a set of rules defining where sampling will take place and both how and when data will be collected. Developing a landscape sampling design can be difficult to do well and can be complicated. We present an eight-step outline for the sampling design development process starting from the initial questions being asked and ending with a set of sampling locations for data collection. We also provide examples of various tools that are available to use for each step.