Olsen and Smith, 1998

Olsen, A. R., and E. P. Smith. 1999. Introduction to special issue on surveys over time. Journal of Agricultural, Biological, and Environmental Statistics 4(4):328-330.

The monitoring design component of the overall Monitoring Framework provides answers to the questions: What site or environment will be monitored? What parameters will be measured at the site? Where will the measurements be taken? What methods will be used to collect the data? When and how frequently will the measurements be made? Since answers to these questions encompass most of the activities people think about in a monitoring program, some consider monitoring design as the entire process of implementing a monitoring program, i.e., the entire Monitoring Framework. Here, we take a more limited view for monitoring design activities. A natural tension exists between monitoring design, the monitoring objectives, scientific capabilities, and institutional capabilities (e.g., budgets, personnel). Monitoring objectives guide the development of the monitoring design. At the same time, the development of the monitoring design almost always requires clarification and prioritization. The available budget or personnel capabilities may limit available options for a design to meet the objectives and, therefore, might require elimination of one or more of the monitoring objectives. In addition, the monitoring design must be sufficient to enable the planned data analysis component of the study.