"This file contains data about estuarine sites that were sampled for the National Coastal Condition Assessment in 2020 and 2021."		
Data have been thoroughly reviewed, however they are not considered final until the NCCA 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. ""                                             "		
                                                		
                                                		
This file does not include information used to determine the statistical weight for each site. Future updates of this file coinciding with NCCA Report publication will include site weights.                                        				
                                                				
                                                				
"""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""                                         "				
				
COLUMN_NAME            	Legal Values	Description		                                                
PUBLICATION_DATE		Date the dataset was published by NARS IM         		                                                
UNIQUE_ID		 Unique site ID based on location. Does not depend on year sampled or any other factor. Follows a unique site through multiple survey designs.  Form is NCA_ss_nnnnn  where ss is state/territory and nnnnn is number that starts at 10001.  No missing values allowed. Text          		
UID		Unique identifier for a single sampling event at a site/visit. Use the UID to associate data in other NCCA files with station information included in this file.		                                                
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.  No missing values allowed."		                                                
DATE_COL	|01|02|03|04|05|06|07|08|09|10|11|12; year	Date Collected mm/dd/yyyy		                                                
PSTL_CODE		"State two letter postal code for site sampled. 50 state postal codes plus (if applicable) AS, MP, GU, PR, VI for American Samoa, Commonwealth of Northern Marianas, Guam, Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands.  No missing values allowed."		
LAT_DD		Actual latitude where sampling occurred in decimal degrees                      		                                                
LON_DD		Actual longitude where sampling occurred in decimal degrees                     		
STATION_DEPTH		" ""Numeric, depth of station in m""                        "		
WTBDY_TYPE	"Waterbody type, based on VALXSITE from verification form"	MARINE|GREAT_LAKES		
VISIT_NO	  |1|2	   Visit: 1/2        		
YEAR		Year site was visited  		
DSGN_CYCLE		Cycle for which sample design was created. NCCA surveys are designed to occur in years ending in 0 and 5.              		
IND_DOMAIN		"Name of indicator group within a study. Valid values are EXTENT (all sites evaluated), CORE (all sites sampled for main indicators), FT_EXTENT and FT_CORE for fish tissue, HAND for hand-picked. NCCA has only CORE estuarine sites."		
EPA_REG	 Region_01|Region_02| Region_03|Region_04|Region_05 |Region_06|Region_09|Region_10|	 EPA Region.  No missing values allowed.             		
EST_GROUP		"34 major estuaries plus 7 other groups of estuaries organized by EMAP Provinces. 41 possible values. \blank\"""" or NA not allowed. Values begin with Province appreviation followed by major estuary name or Other."		
EVAL_CAT		"NCCA site evaluation result.  Frame_NotAssessed is used to identify pseudo sites that were created to identify polygons that were not in 1999-2001, 2005-2006, and 2010 sample frames but were in 2015 sample frame. No missing values allowed."		
FEAT_NM		"Most detailed name available and may identify different portions of an estuary. \blank\"""" if missing"		
LAT_DD83		Design latitude in decimal degrees. From sample frame. No missing values allowed.		
LON_DD83		 Design longitude in decimal degrees. From sample frame. No missing values allowed.                     		
NCA_REG	 East_Coast|Gulf_Coast|West_Coast| Pacific 	"National Coastal Assessment Region. Used prior to NARS in 2010.  No missing values allowed. ""Pacific"" indicates Pacific Island Territory Reef Flat Study"		
NCCA_REG	Northeast|Southeast|Gulf|West|Great Lakes|Pacific	"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.  No missing values allowed."		
NEP_OR_ESTUARY_PROGRAM_NAME		NEP or Non-NEP Estuary Program name 		
NEP_NAT	NEP | Not_NEP	Is site within a National Estuary Program Study Area		
PROVINCE	"Acadian Province|Californian Province|Carolinian Province|Columbian Province|Louisianian Province|West Indian Province |All Great Lakes sites are listed as """"GREAT LAKES Province"""	Marine biogeographical province defined by EMAP Near Coastal Program.  No missing values allowed.                       		
SITETYPE	PROB|HAND|   	"Site type (Probability-based or hand-picked). PROB for sites from probability survey.  HAND for hand-picked sites.  Currently, NCCA does not have any estuarine Hand-picked sites.  No missing values allowed. "		
SMALL_EST	Small|Large   	Indicator of whether an estuary site is in a small or large estuary. Not identified for Great Lakes or Long Island Sound 2021 sampling 		
STATE_NM		State or territory  complete name. No missing values allowed.                   		
WTBDY_NM		 General estuary or  tidal river name.                   		
XCOORD		x-coordinate from US Contiguous Albers Equal Area Conic projection EXCEPT Hawaii sites which are calculated from Hawaii Albers Equal Area Conic projection. No missing values allowed.            		
YCOORD		 y-coordinate from US Contiguous Albers Equal Area Conic projection EXCEPT Hawaii sites which are calculated from Hawaii Albers Equal Area Conic projection.  No missing values allowed.  		
CHES_BAY	Indicator of whether site is inside or outside Chesapeake Bay	Inside Chesapeake Bay|Outside Chesapeake Bay		
DWH_REGION	  Inside DWH Area|Outside DWH Area|Outside Gulf Coast 	"Site is located in the Deep Water Horizon Oil Spill impact area or located outside of impact area within Gulf Coast region. """"Outside of Gulf Coast"""" if outside of Gulf Coast region. Blank if not an estuarine site."		
PENS_PERD_BAY	Indicator of whether site is inside or outside Pensacola/Perdido Bay	Inside PPB|Outside PPB		
INDEX_NCCA20	Index visit for 2020 National Coastal Condition Assessment (Y/N). Missing value indicates not part of study.			
INDEX_LIS	Index visit for Long Island Sound Study (Y/N). Missing value indicates not part of study.			
				
				
				
Changelog				
				
Publication Date 
Of Most recent
File Posted to
NARS Data Page 
    		    Change		
5/3/2024		Complete republication of data. Supercedes all previous copies.		
11/12/2024		file refresh to update values for multiple variables. This file supercedes all previous publications.