Environmental Monitoring Inventory for the Great Lakes Basin

Goals and objectives
The goal of the Great Lakes Basin Monitoring Inventory is to create a binational tool that will provide a much-needed mechanism for information sharing throughout the basin. Products will include the monitoring inventory, a monitoring gap assessment, and a series of recommendations for future monitoring coordination and program development throughout the Great Lakes basin.

The monitoring inventory will be a web-based, searchable database containing a variety of descriptive characteristics, which include but are not limited to contact information, program description, sampling parameters, geographic characteristics, program funding, and data collection procedures. The inventory will not contain monitoring data but rather serve as a portal by providing descriptive information including a point of contact for each program and direct web-links where available.

A gap analysis will be performed based on a comparison between a set of previously identified monitoring needs and the monitoring inventory. Results of the gap analysis will be used to examine how to more effectively coordinate monitoring programs throughout the Great Lakes basin. Based on the gap analysis, recommendations for improving monitoring coordination and program development will be presented to stakeholders throughout the Great Lakes basin.