Abstract
Comprehensive environmental monitoring programmes must be designed to accommodate multiple objectives and public use of the data. Typically these programmes will involve both descriptive and analytic objectives, but surveys optimally designed with description as the principal objective may be inadequate for analytic objectives as well as secondary descriptive objectives. Survey design should adequately accommodate all identified objectives and intended data uses, not just the primary ones. Additionally, choice of design is influenced by intended users of the data. Complex survey designs often require complex computational formulae or statistical protocols, and data openly available to the public are subject to misuse if the design is such that generally used common data analyses are not appropriate. For those users under the authority of the agency responsible for the survey, it may be possible to prescribe exact analytic protocols and prohibit certain improper data uses; public data use cannot be so regulated. These problems may be minimized by employing an equal probability sampling design with limited stratification, and by eliminating design features that impose strong patterns, such as clusters.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Cassel, C.M., Sarndal, C.E. and Wretman, J.H. (1977)Foundations of Inference in Survey Sampling. Wiley, New York.
Cochran, W.G. (1977)Sampling Techniques, 3rd edition. Wiley, New York.
Cochran, W. G. (1983)Planning and Analysis of Observational Studies. Wiley, New York.
Cowling, E.B. (1992) Challenges at the interface between ecological and environmental monitoring: imperatives for research and public policy. In D.H. McKenzie, D.E. Hyatt and V.J. McDonald (eds),Ecological Indicators, Elsevier Applied Science, London, pp. 1461–80.
Deming, W.E. (1975) On probability as a basis for action.American Statistician,29, 146–52.
Eilers, J.M., Brakke, D.F. and Landers, D.H. (1988) Chemical and physical characteristics of lakes in the upper Midwest, United States.Environmental Science and Technology,22, 164–72.
Herlihy, A.T., Kaufmann, P.R. and Mitch, M.E. (1991) Stream chemistry in the Eastern United States. 2. Current sources of acidity in acidic and low acid-neutralizing capacity streams.Water Resources Research,27,629–42.
Holt, D. and Smith, T.M.F. (1979) Post stratification.Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series A,142, 33–46.
Horvitz, D.G. and Thompson, D.J. (1952) A generalization of sampling without replacement from a finite universe.Journal of the American Statistical Association,47, 663–85.
Hunsaker, C.T. and Carpenter, D.E. (eds) (1990)Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program: Ecological Indicators. EPA/600/3-90/060. US Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC.
Iles, K. (1994) Directions in forest inventory.Journal of Forestry,92, 12–5.
Kaufmann, P.R., Herlihy, A.T., Mitch, M.E., Messer, J.J. and Overton, W.S. (1991) Stream chemistry in the Eastern United States. I. Synoptic survey design, acid-base status, and regional patterns.Water Resources Research,27, 611–27.
Kaufmann, P.R., Herlihy, A.T. and Baker, L.A. (1992) Sources of acidity in lakes and streams of the United States.Environmental Pollution,77, 115–22.
Kish, L. (1965)Survey Sampling. Wiley, New York.
Kish, L. (1977) Robustness in survey sampling.Bulletin of the International Statistical Institute,47, 515–28.
Kish, L. (1984) On analytical statistics from complex samples.Survey Methodology,10, 1–7.
Kish, L. (1987)Statistical Design for Research. Wiley, New York.
Kish, L. (1992) Weighting for unequal Pi.Journal of Official Statistics,8, 183–200.
Korn, E.L. and Graubard, B.I. (1991) Epidemiologic studies utilizing surveys: accounting for the sampling design.American Journal of Public Health,81, 1166–73.
Landers, D.H., Overton, W.S., Linthurst, R.A. and Brakke, D.F. (1988) Eastern Lake Survey: Regional estimates of lake chemistry.Environmental Science and Technology,22, 128–35.
Lee, E.S., Forthofer, R.N. and Lorimor, R.J. (1989)Analyzing Complex Survey Data, Sage Publications, Newbury, CA.
Linthurst, R.A., Landers, D.H., Eilers, J.M., Brakke, D.F., Overton, W.S., Meier, E.P. and Crowe, R.E. (1986)Characteristics of lakes in the eastern United States. Volume 1: Population descriptions and physico-chemical relationships. EPA-600/4-86/007a. US Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC.
Linthurst, R.A. and Overton, W.S. (1985) Response to comments on aquatic research project 3B.American Statistician,39, 266–71.
Little, R.J.A. (1991) Inference with survey weights.Journal of Official Statistics,7, 405–24.
McKinlay, S.M. (1975) The design and analysis of the observational study — A review.Journal of the American Statistical Association,70, 503–20.
Messer, J.J., Linthurst, R.A. and Overton, W.S. (1991) An EPA program for monitoring ecological status and trends.Environmental Monitoring and Assessment,20, 67–78.
Mitch, M.E., Kaufmann, P.R., Herlihy, A.T., Overton, W.S. and Sale, M.J. (1990)National Stream Survey Database Guide. EPA/600/8-90/055, US EPA Environmental Research Laboratory, Corvallis, Oregon.
Nathan, G. (1975) Tests of independence in contingency tables from stratified proportional samples.Sankhya C,37, 77–87; corrigendum: (1978),Sankhya C,40, 190.
Nathan, G. (1988) Inference based on data from complex sample designs. In P.R. Krishnaiah and C.R. Rao (eds),Handbook of Statistics, Vol. 6, Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp. 247–266.
Overton, W.S. (1986) Working Draft Analysis Plan for the EPA Eastern Lake Survey, March 18, 1985. Technical Report 113, Department of Statistics, Oregon State University.
Overton, W.S. (1987) A sampling and analysis plan for streams in the National Surface Water Survey. Technical Report 117, Department of Statistics, Oregon State University.
Overton, W.S. (1993) Probability sampling and population inference in monitoring programs. In M.F. Goodchild, B.O. Parks and L.T. Steyaert (eds),Environmental Modeling with GIS, Oxford University Press, New York, pp. 470–80.
Overton, W.S. and Stehman, S.V. (1993) Improvement of performance of variable probability sampling strategies through application of the population space and the facsimile population bootstrap. Technical Report 148, Department of Statistics, Oregon State University.
Overton, W.S. and Stehman, S.V. (1994) Variance estimation in the EMAP strategy for sampling discrete ecological resources.Environmental and Ecological Statistics,1, 133–52.
Overton, W.S. and Stehman, S.V. (1995a) The Horvitz-Thompson theorem as a unifying perspective for probability sampling: with examples from natural resource sampling.American Statistician,49, 261–8.
Overton, W.S. and Stehman, S.V. (1995b) Design implications of characteristics of long-term environmental monitoring programs.Proceedings of the Section on Statistics and the Environment, American Statistical Association, Alexandria, VA (to appear).
Overton, W.S., Kanciruk, P., Hook, L.A., Eilers, J.M., Landers, D.H., Brakke, D.F., Blick, D.J., Linthurst, R.A. and DeHaan, M.D. (1986)Characteristics of Lakes in the Eastern United States. Volume II: Lakes Sampled and Descriptive Statistics for Physical and Chemical Variables. EPA-600/4-86-007b, US Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC.
Overton, W.S., White, D. and Stevens, D.L. (1990)Design Report for EMAP: Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program. EPA/600/3-91/053, US Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC.
Sale, M.J., Kaufmann, P.R., Jager, H.I., Coe, J.M., Cougan, K.A., Kinney, A.J., Mitch, M.E. and Overton, W.S. (1988)Chemical Characteristics of Streams in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern United States. Volume IL Streams Sampled, Descriptive Statistics, and Compendium of Physical and Chemical Data. EPA/600/3-88/021b, US Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC.
Särndal, C.E., Swensson, B. and Wretman, J. (1992)Model Assisted Survey Sampling. Springer-Verlag, New York.
Schreuder, H.T. and Czaplewski, R.L. (1993) Long-term strategy for the statistical design of forest health monitoring system.Environmental Monitoring and Assessment,27, 81–94.
Shifley, S.R. and Schlesinger, R.C. (1994) Sampling guidelines for old-growth forests in the Midwest, USA.Natural Areas Journal,14, 258–68.
Skinner, C.J., Holt, D. and Smith, T.M.F. (eds.) (1989)Analysis of Complex Surveys. Wiley, New York.
Smith, T.M.F. (1990) Comment on ‘History and development of the theoretical foundations of survey based estimation and analysis. (J.N.K. Rao and D.R. Bellhouse)Survey Methodology,16, 26–9.
Stehman, S.V. and Overton, W.S. (1989) Variance estimation for fixed-configuration, systematic sampling. Technical Report 134, Department of Statistics, Oregon State University.
Stehman, S.V. and Overton, W.S. (1994) Comparison of variance estimators of the Horvitz-Thompson estimator for randomized variable probability systematic sampling.Journal of the American Statistical Association,89, 30–43.
Wald, A. (1943) Tests of statistical hypotheses concerning several parameters when the number of observations is large.Transactions of the American Mathematical Society,54, 426–82.
Wilson, J. R. and Reiser, M. (1993) Transforming hypotheses for test of homogeneity with survey data.Journal of Official Statistics,9, 815–23.
Wolter, K. (1985)Introduction to Variance Estimation. Springer Verlag, New York.
Wright, R.F. (1988) Acidification of lakes in the eastern United States and southern Norway: a comparison.Environmental Science and Technology,22, 178–82.
Yates, F. (1981)Sampling Methods for Censuses and Surveys, 4th edition. Griffin, London.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Overton, W.S., Stehman, S.V. Design implications of anticipated data uses for comprehensive environmental monitoring programmes. Environ Ecol Stat 2, 287–303 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00569359
Received:
Revised:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00569359