CEMML Resource Inventory and Monitoring (I&M)

Effective resource management requires information about status, trends, and changes over time. Since 1985, the Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands (CEMML) has been monitoring land use, vegetation, disturbance, soil erosion, and wildlife on military installations and other public lands across the continental U.S. and overseas. Projects have supported the Range and Training Land Assessment or RTLA (formerly Land Condition-Trend Analysis or LCTA) program and other natural resources management programs. Accurate and precise data collection is the important first step in assessing resource condition and evaluating the effectiveness of management activities and land uses.

The Center works closely with conservation staffs and training land managers to develop monitoring programs that support the military mission and natural resources conservation. The process involves developing monitoring objectives, understanding ecological processes and conceptual models, selecting appropriate attributes and indicators, determining a sampling design, selecting methods, collecting data, managing data, performing analyses, and preparing reports. State-of-the-art GIS, GPS, and data collection technology is used to support this process. Results also can be integrated with GIS analyses to classify remotely sensed imagery. Common management elements of interest include soils, disturbance, vegetation (composition, structure, abundance, diversity), erosion, ground cover, wildlife and other elements. Recommended approaches may include a variety of quantitative, semi-quantitative, and qualitative methods. Results are often applied to assess the quality and sustainability of training lands from multiple perspectives.

CEMML pays careful attention to monitoring designs, implementation, and data quality control to ensure that projects support conservation and training requirements and are applied consistently over time. Ecologists at CEMML have extensive experience with natural resources management concerns and needs on military installations and on other public lands. The Center provides a wide variety of products and services to assist installations in developing effective monitoring programs.

List of CEMML Resource I&M Services

Program Scoping and Development

• Integration of monitoring with planning and compliance documents
• Identification of management targets and threats
• Development of specific monitoring objectives
• Integration of military training concerns and sustainability issues
• Literature reviews and conceptual ecological model synthesis
• Assessment of appropriate attributes and indicators
• Matching level of monitoring intensity with program needs
• Integration with resource management plans and NEPA documents

Inventory and Monitoring Survey Designs, Methods, and Protocols

• Development of comprehensive protocols for vegetation, faunal, and cultural resources
• Evaluation of sampling designs, methods, and protocols
• Monitoring designs tailored to specific locations and management concerns
• Erosion and watershed assessment
• Unpaved roads and trails assessments
• Rangeland health assessments

Data Collection

• Logistics, equipment, and planning
• Field data collection
• Field computer data entry programming and interfaces
• GPS applications and data dictionary development
• Data quality assurance and control
• Floristic surveys (see CEMML Floristics Team)
• Faunal surveys (mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, and insects)

Data Management and Support

• Database design and development
• Systems support
• Data transcription
• Quality assurance/quality control
• Geodatabase development
• Custom interfaces and query building

Data Analysis and Reporting

• Evaluation of survey designs and methods
• Data analysis and reporting
• Integration of field data with GIS data and applications
• Application of monitoring results to adaptive management
• Implications for military training requirements
• Impacts of training on natural resources
• Monitoring support for adaptive management, Integrated Natural Resource Management Plans, EISs, and EAs

Customized Applications and Support

• Custom interfaces and analyses
• Programming analysis tools and interfaces
• Field data collection software programs
• GPS data dictionary development
• Integration of monitoring data with GIS and Geodatabase development

Remote Sensing Applications and Analysis

• Landcover and vegetation mapping and accuracy assessment
• Disturbance mapping
• Spatial erosion modeling (RUSLE, USPED) and vegetation cover factor mapping
• Change detection mapping (vegetation types, habitat quality, spatial patterns, land cover)

Training and Technical Guidance for Monitoring

• Technical reference manuals and course development for natural resources/ITAM staffs
• Training in field methods, GPS, data collection, data management, statistics, and analysis
• Web-based training and self tutorials for developing monitoring skills
• Literature reviews for specific ecological or management concerns

Point of Contact: Bob Brozka, (970) 491-2673, Robert.Brozka@ColoState.EDU

Other Resource I&M Contacts

[Top]