The State of Narragansett Bay:
Developing an Indicator Selection Process for
Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island

Kerrie O'Donnell
Bachelor's of Arts in Environmental Studies
May 2002

Scientific data collected on parameters of the environment is integral to environmental decision-making. This data can illustrate how the environment is changing in response to human activities and policies. However, in order for this crucial data to be most effective, it must be translated into information that is relevant and comprehensible to decision makers.

A decision-making audience, the General Assembly of Rhode Island, has recently requested a report on the state of Narragansett Bay to develop a "strategic plan for Narragansett Bay." A similar plan, the Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan, was developed for the Bay in 1992. However, due to stumbling blocks such as lack of funding and uncoordinated data collection efforts leading to scattered data that is patchy in its temporal and spatial coverage, there is currently no consensus on who or how this data should be synthesized into a comprehensive statement about the state of Narragansett Bay.

I have found that many of the important preliminary data organization and identification steps have been completed. They must be updated. The organization that is responsible for reporting on the state of Narragansett Bay to the General Assembly (RIDEM) must keep in mind the interests and the level of understanding of the environment of this audience. To select the best indicators to report to the general assembly, a standardized process should be developed.

There are many examples of such processes, yet most of them are prohibitively complex. Therefore, in order to aide the Narragansett Bay Estuary Program, the Partnership for Narragansett Bay, and the University of Rhode Island's Coastal Institute in their efforts to develop a suite of indicators to report on the state of Narragansett Bay, I suggest an indicator selection process that can serve as a preliminary screening test for the data that is already available.The selection process I suggest has four steps: 1) Identify audience 2) Identify questions 3) Develop selection criteria 4) Organize indicators.

This process can be applied to the available data to coordinate the selection of a suite of indicators that illustrates the complete spectrum of indicators from pressures on the environment to the effects these pressures create. This process is both retrospective and prospective. It can be used to select indicators from previously collected data, highlight gaps, prioritize which areas need further investigation, and to coordinate the collection of future data.