Regional Monitoring Framework Definition
A Regional Monitoring Framework coordinates actions, policies, strategies, and approaches designed to characterize baseline conditions and collect marine resource impact data across various stages of offshore development. The framework harmonizes initiatives through adherence to applicable monitoring standards accepted across participating entities. The framework provides a mechanism for all monitoring data to be analyzed at regional scales, and in some cases, identifies additional monitoring needs.
Unlike site-level monitoring, a regional monitoring framework requires data beyond a single wind farm to answer research questions at ecologically meaningful scales, capturing cumulative, landscape-level dynamics that no single project can address alone. Within this framework, monitoring is understood as a subset of research involving repeated, systematic observations always aimed at answering specific research questions and testing scientific hypotheses. A regional monitoring framework requires strategic data collection targeted at addressing specific questions in a highly structured way. Outcomes of a regional monitoring framework include a mechanistic understanding of ecosystem processes, and the ability to assess cumulative impacts.
At a minimum, regional monitoring frameworks include:
- regional sampling strategies and data types that have proven valuable in assessing ecosystem change over time, and
- regional-scale data products and analyses that characterize ecosystem change over time.