This file contains provisional data collected by the National Coastal Condition Assessment in 2020 and 2021.															
"Preliminary quality reviews of these data have been completed. However, they are not considered to be final until the National Coastal Condition Assessment 2020 & 21 Report is published. "															
Data may be updated at any time. The changelog for the associated file may be found below the column name definitions.															
End-users are responsible for reviewing the suitability of these data for their purposes.															
"Please bring any questions about the data to the attention of Hugh Sullivan, NCCA Lead at sullivan.hugh@epa.gov. "															
Station location information may be obtained from the Provisional NCCA 2020 SITEINFO File. The UID column may be used to merge NCCA 2020 data files with the SITEINFO file.															
"For information about NCCA protocols, please check the NCCA 2020 Field Operations Manual, Site Evaluation Guidelines; Lab Operations Manual, and Quality Assurance Project Plan on the NCCA Website: https://www.epa.gov/national-aquatic-resource-surveys/manuals-used-national-aquatic-resource-surveys#National%20Coastal%20Condition%20Assessment"															
															
PUBLICATION_DATE		Date the dataset was published to the NARS site													
UID		Unique identifier for the site/visit. A site with two visits in a survey cycle will have one UID for the first visit and one UID for each subsequent visit.													
UNIQUE_ID		Permanent unique location identifier. A UNIQUE_ID may have different SITE_IDs for different survey cycles but the UNIQUE_ID will always be the same to allow tracking of change over time.													
SITE_ID		"NCCA Site ID for the study and year sampled. Preferred form is NCAnn_MM-xxxxx  where  nn is survey cycle year (05, 10, 15 , 20, etc), MM is two letter state code, and xxxxx is between 10001 and 99999.  No missing values allowed. A UNIQUE_ID may have different SITE_IDs for different survey cycles but the UNIQUE_ID will always be the same to allow tracking of change over time."													
VISIT_NO	|1|2	Sequential visit an index period; Visit: 1 or 2													
DATE_COL	|01|02|03|04|05|06|07|08|09|10|11|28	Date sample or data were collected													
PSTL_CODE		"State (US) or province (Canada) two letter postal code for site sampled. 50 state postal codes plus AS, MP, GU, PR, VI for American Samoa, Commonwealth of Northern Marianas, Guam, Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands.  No missing values allowed."													
DESIGN_YR		Year for which the survey design was intended to be implemented. The 2020 DESIGN_YR was implemented in 2020 and2021 due to COVID Health and Safety restrictions. Any other design year applies only to special studies with which it is associated.													
NCCA_REG	Northeast|Southeast|Gulf|West|Great Lakes|	"National Coastal Condition Assessment Region.  Northeast includes states ME, NH, MA, RI, CT, NY, NJ, MD, DE, and VA.  Southeast includes NC, SC, GA, and east coast of FL.  Gulf of Mexico includes the west coast of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. West Coast includes Washington, Oregon and California. Great Lakes includes the US shore of all Great Lakes. No missing values allowed."													
STUDY		Name of primary study site belongs to.  A unique site may belong to multiple studies. No missing values allowed. 													
SAMPLE_TYPE		Code identifying sample type													
STATION_DEPTH		"Numeric, depth of station in m"													
MEAN_SECCHI_DEPTH		"Mean Secchi depth (m), either mean of all 6 disappear/reappear values."													
REP		Sequential replicate number. Each site should have 3 repetitions of disappear/reappear values unless clear to bottom.													
CLEAR_TO_BOTTOM	|Y|N	Identifies sites where the Secchi disk does not disappear before reaching the bottom of the water column.													
DISAPPEARS		Depth Secchi disk disappears (m)													
REAPPEARS		Depth Secchi disk  reappears (m)													
SECCHI_TIME		Time of secchi reading													
SECCHI_COMMENT		"Comment clarifying secchi data, if needed. Usually provided by field crew."													
NARS_FLAG		NARS flag. ND = Nondetect; H = holding time issue (holding times for each analyte may be found in the Laboratory Operation Manual https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2016-05/documents/ncca_2015_qapp_version_2.1.pdf); S = shipping issue; L = Less than reporting limit but above MDL; Q = other quality issue. See NARS_COMMENT.													
NARS_COMMENT		Comment explaining NARS_FLAG or LAB_COMMENT if necessary													
															
CHANGE LOG															
PROVISIONAL_NCCA20_21_SECCHI_DATA															
DATE		ACTION													
17-Jun-22		Initial publication of provisional data to the National Aquatic Resource Surveys Data page.