3.1 Collect data: Introduction

Overview    Introduction   Standard procedures   Other considerations      Resources      Results and next steps

This third step in our Salmon Monitoring Advisor focuses on the field data collection approaches and procedures that will be used to meet the monitoring project's goals and objectives and implement the underlying monitoring design in a cost-effective manner.  Field data collection is all about taking measurements - the how, where and when questions that guide these measurements are inextricably tied to the monitoring design.  Most of this web site focuses on measuring salmon population indicators, but the same procedures apply to measuring related habitat indicators.  The monitoring project design step serves the fundamental purpose of ensuring that field data will be collected in a manner in which measurements can ultimately produce a set of robust indicators from which important inferences can be made about the variables of interest.  The following essential concepts are centrally important for this data collection step: 

• Without an adequate monitoring design or if field staff do not adequately understand its purpose, advantages and disadvantages, implementing the data collection phase likely would result in a very wasteful expenditure of resources and time.  If you are responsible for implementing a monitoring project in the field and encounter either of these circumstances, return to the design step and consult with monitoring design experts if you need additional assistance. 
  
• A good monitoring design will have considered the need and optimal approaches for balancing sampling efforts among component spatial, temporal and response designs (as described in Step 2).  Field staff should make every effort to implement the design in the field to ensure that the usefulness of collected data and its basis for sound decision making are not inadvertently reduced by local decisions made in the field during implementation.
• If field staff encounter unanticipated circumstances during field implementation that conflict with assumptions or flexibility built into the original design, then an iterative step should be taken to deliberately and carefully revisit the design through Step 2 of the monitoring wheel and make any necessary modifications. 
  
• A specific, detailed project sampling and operational plan is essential for maximizing the likelihood that collected data will implement the intended design and enable valid analysis and conclusions with respect to key project questions. Standard procedures, including QA/QC provisions, are important cornerstones for credible inferences and should be incorporated into the data collection plan. 
  
• Field staff also play an important role in describing the characteristics and attributes of data and measurements that are being collected in the field, which are essential to document in project metadata specifications (see Step 3, Essential Data Management Concepts).  
• Salmon population and related habitat monitoring data collection programs can take advantage of a long history of sampling procedures and guidelines - these resources contain proven and standard methods that can be used within monitoring programs to help ensure successful outcomes and broader potential use of data beyond the local project area.
  
• Monitoring resources are scarce and funders will be most inclined to support projects if they are built upon robust designs and implemented using proven methods.