TOWARD A NATIONAL PROGRAM FOR MONITORING ENVIRONMENTAL RESOURCES

A conceptual framework is presented for integrating the nation's envir onmental research and monitoring networks, which will enable comprehen sive and integrated assessments of natural resources. This framework c an link inventories and remote sensing, national and regional resource s surveys, and intensive monitoring and research sites with research a nd modeling to produce an integrated national environmental monitoring program. This integration of the nation's major environmental monitor ing and research networks can allow understanding, assessment, evaluat ion, and forecasting of its renewable natural resources at national an d regional scales. It can also enhance and support our understanding a nd ability to predict the causes and consequences of environmental cha nge and ecosystem response, address multiple scales of ecosystem and r esource interactions, and allow system-level syntheses and assessments of data and information. Network integration provides an ''added valu e'' that the current array of fragmented single-purpose networks canno t.