Full document / COSOC-W-86-002 - the National Sea Grant Library

Estuarine and CoastalManagement • Toolsof the
Trade. Proceedingsof the TenthNationalConference
ofThe Coastal Society. October 12-15,1986. New
Orleans. LA. Copyright by The Coastal Society
1987.
Introduotlon
MANAGEMENT AND ANALYSIS OF
ESTUARINE DATA USING SAS
Jerry L. Oglesby and PaulD. Mowety
SCI Data Systems, toe
S30 CollegeParkway.Suite N
Aanapolu.MD 21401
C. M. Bundrick
Institute for Statistical and
MafteiiiMical Modeling
University ofWest Honda
PerascoU. FL 32514
The Statlatloal Analysis System (SAS) is a oomputer program for
managing and statistically analyzing data. SAS was develped in the
early 1970's In response to the growing need for an Integrated oonputer
package that oould onrry out statlstloal computations as well as
manipulate large or ooaplloated data seta. In the SAS package, these
two capabilities are ooablned with an easy-to-use ooanand language
processor. Using SAS, It Is possible to write complicated aooputor
procedures for managing or analyzing estuarine data using a few
straightforward SAS oommanda. Today, the SAS package is very popular
with estuarine reooarobers and managers In government, research
Institutions, and private Industry. This paper dismisses cany of the
SAS tools currently being used for managing and analyzing the estuarine
data base now under development by the D.S. Environmental Protection
Agency's national Estuary Program.
The National Estuary Program provides for the characterisation of
water and sediment quality, living resources, and the effects of
pollution on the nation's estuaries. The purpose of this
obaraoterlzatlon Is to document the ohanges that have ooourred as well
as the present health of estuaries and to support the development of
new pollution abatement strategies. These tasks require a large,
quality assured data base.
The first step In the estuarine oharaoterlzation prooess is to
Identify and prioritise problems of widespread oonoern (e.g., depletion
of fish stocks, eutrophloatlon, etc). Onoo these problem areas are
identified, associated researoh hypotheses are developed. Next, the
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