The Wetlands Regional Monitoring Program (WRMP) Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are documents that describe data collection methods for the WRMP’s monitoring indicators. In some cases, the SOPs describe more than one data collection method for a given type of indicator, depending on considerations related to cost, site type/access, specific information/management needs, or other relevant factors. The SOPs are not prescriptive documents specifying exactly what actions should be taken by a wetland project. Instead, they are intended to present the best available science, support consistent, cost-effective data collection across multiple scales of space and time, and generate the most useful data and information for answering the WRMP’s guiding and management questions.
WRMP staff developed the SOPs in collaboration with the Technical Advisory Committee and a suite of technical workgroups, as well as end-users such as tidal wetland restoration project funders, land managers, regulators, and other program partners. The WRMP has currently developed tidal wetland SOPs that address remote sensing and mapping, hydrogeomorphic monitoring, vegetation monitoring, fish and fish habitat monitoring, and human dimensions monitoring. In addition to the WRMP’s Program Plan and Monitoring Plan, the SOPs provide background and rationale for the data collection methods that are ultimately integrated into the WRMP’s Implementation Plan. All of these documents are listed on the WRMP Science Framework Documents page.
Why are SOPs important?
Producing reliable, consistent, and credible monitoring information to inform decision-making is at the heart of the WRMP’s mission. SOPs do not dictate which methods to use but rather play a crucial role by ensuring the underlying data collected to answer the WRMP Guiding and Management questions are consistent and technically sound. SOPs help streamline monitoring efforts and improve data comparability, allowing for creation of the high-quality datasets that decision-makers need to effectively restore and adaptively manage tidal wetlands in the San Francisco Estuary. For wetland projects that decide to use survey methods that overlap with those the WRMP is using, the SOPs provide guidance on how to conduct those surveys in a manner that the data will be comparable.
How are WRMP SOPs intended to be used?
WRMP SOPs are intended to:
- Guide WRMP staff and subcontractors’ procedures for data collection and data management.
- Inform wetland restoration project implementers, scientists, regulators, and the public about the background, rationale, and methods for WRMP data collection.
- Facilitate the collection of standardized wetland data across the region (and, in partnership with other regional wetland monitoring programs, across California) to enable technically-sound analyses about changes in wetland health and resilience over time.
WRMP staff are also working with regulators to identify how WRMP SOPs can help support cost-effective permit compliance monitoring that contributes to a broader, regional understanding of tidal wetland health and resilience. Initially, these efforts are focused on supporting compliance monitoring for voluntary tidal wetland restoration projects, as well as projects that enhance/restore tidal wetlands as impact minimization measures or as part of multi-benefit, nature-based solutions for shoreline adaptation. The WRMP SOPs were not specifically designed to support permit compliance for compensatory mitigation projects, or other projects whose permits require compliance with especially stringent performance criteria. However, it does not preclude the use of WRMP SOPs to support permit compliance for compensatory mitigation projects or other projects with stringent performance criteria if some of the methods described in the SOPs are appropriate for measuring metrics associated with a performance criterion or criteria. In these situations, the methods in WRMP SOPs (or likely an intentionally chosen subset of these methods) will likely be used in conjunction with other methods to collect data to compare to a suite of performance criteria.