Riparian Area Management: Inventory and Monitoring of Riparian Areas

This Technical Reference (TR) contains suggested techniques and procedures. It will assist managers in determining their specific inventory and monitoring needs. Inventory components are shown as essential or optional. Essential components should be emphasized, but they are not required. Optional components should receive less emphasis, but they may be required to meet specific management needs.

The approach to inventory and monitoring is shown in Figure 1. The extensive inventory is completed using primarily remote sensing, maps, existing data, and limited field analysis. With extensive inventory data, managers identify, characterize, and roughly classify riparian sites. A decision can then be made on priorities for intensive inventories based on resource values and site characters. Low resource values and/or acceptable condition may dictate the development of maintenance objectives and the establishment of monitoring without the completion of an intensive inventory. High values and/or unacceptable condition would probably result in a decision to do an intensive inventory.

In other cases, the extensive inventory may be inconclusive and the cost of an intensive inventory may not be justified. Managers may then proceed with a supplement to the extensive inventory consisting of a field analysis of three attributes. This additional riparian condition data should allow managers to decide if an intensive inventory is warranted.