The National Stream Internet Project

Accurate, high resolution information does not exist for the status and trends of water quality and aquatic biotas throughout the 1,000,000s of stream kilometers across North America. Without that information, prioritization of limited resources for conservation and management proceeds inefficiently. In recent decades, however, massive amounts of water quality, biological surveys, and habitat condition data have been collected by state, federal, tribal, and private organizations. Those data could be used to develop high-quality information if a nationally consistent analytical infrastructure existed. The Stream Internet Project is developing that national infrastructure and will facilitate convenient application of sophisticated spatial statistical models designed specifically for data measured on stream networks (see SSN/STARS website: http://www.fs.fed.us/rm/boise/AWAE/projects/SpatialStreamNetworks.shtml). The spatial network models can be applied to databases characterized by clustered locations, which makes them powerful data mining tools when applied to interagency databases. The spatial models also outperform traditional statistical techniques and enable predictions at ungaged/unmonitored sites, which facilitates development of high-resolution status maps for full river networks (for a regional application, visit the NorWeST website: http://www.fs.fed.us/rm/boise/AWAE/projects/NorWeST.html). As better information is developed for streams, it will enable more efficient use of conservation resources and empower managers to be more effective resource stewards.