"This file contains data about Great Lakes sites that were samples for the National Coastal Condition Assessment in 2020, 2021 and 2022."		

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 publication of the NCCA Report will include site weights.                                           		
		
		
		
COLUMN_NAME	Legal Values	Description
PUBLICATION_DATE		Date the dataset was published by NARS IM         
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."
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.
DATE_COL	|01|02|03|04|05|06|07|08|09|10|11|12; year	Date Collected mm/dd/yyyy
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  
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          
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. The NCCA has two Great Lakes hand-picked sites for the2020 design cycle."
COUNTRY	 Region_01|Region_02| Region_03|Region_04|Region_05 |Region_06|Region_09|Region_10|	 EPA Region.  No missing values allowed.             
EPA_REG		"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"
GREAT_LAKE		Great Lake in which the sampling site is located.
LAKE_REG		"""Region of a Great Lake where sampling site is located. Currently the only Lake Region delineation are the East, Central and West Basins of Lake Erie."
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.                     
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."
NPS_PARK		Name of National Park Service park in the Great Lakes. Or Not_NPS
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.                       
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."
SITETYPE	PROB|HAND|   	Site type (Probability-based or hand-picked). PROB for sites from probability survey.  HAND for hand-picked sites.  NCCA has two Hand-picked sites in the Great Lakes.  No missing values allowed. 
STATE_NM		State or territory  complete name. No missing values allowed.                   
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.  
		
		
Changelog		
		
Publication Date 
Of Most recent
File Posted to
NARS Data Page 
        		Change
5/3/2024		Complete republication of data. Supercedes all previous copies.
5/9/2024		"REV_1.csv"". Inserted missing LAT_DD column."
11/12/2024		complete data file refresh