Habitat Data Sharing

Natural resource managers are interested in developing ways to share and exchange aquatic habitat monitoring data. PNAMP initiated the Habitat Data Sharing project in 2011 to facilitate a discussion on actions needed to effectively share habitat and effectiveness monitoring results. It augments the on-going Coordinated Assessments project, which is currently focusing on the sharing of fish abundance data in the Columbia Basin, and will be informed by the ongoing Effectiveness Monitoring Coordination Task and Integrated Status and Trends Monitoring project.

The project was initiated at a workshop held in July 2011. Following that workshop, the Habitat Data Sharing project workplan was developed. The project embraces five new activities (Activities A-E) and connects with two activities being run parallel to the project (Activities F&G). These activities, listed here, are described more fully in the project workplan:

Activity A: Identification of a short list of priority habitat characteristics,
Activity B: Data Exchange Template (DET) prototype for selected habitat characteristics,
Activity C: Creating habitat indices for improved sharing using normalization of habitat metrics
and measurements,
Activity D: Needs assessment for habitat data sharing,
Activity E: Macroinvertebrate data as a component of habitat data sharing,
Activity F: Remote sensing as a new/improved source of habitat characterization data at multiple scales,and
Activity G: Habitat data discovery.