Washington State Department of Ecology

Inventory

An inventory begins with careful compilation and evaluation of all pertinent Rule Citation and available data, reports, information, aerial photos, plans, studies, inventories, and other information applicable to your jurisdiction’s shorelines. For most jurisdictions, the majority of the analysis steps that follow will involve extracting information from existing reports, studies and data.

Click for sources of inventory data and information.

Suggestions for inventories

Proceed carefully before pursuing new data gathering or data interpretation efforts! In most cases, field work should be limited to field verification of existing data and addressing key data gaps identified after preparing an initial assessment.

Besides searching on the internet, get advice from local experts and your technical advisory teams.
Many valuable reports and studies for specific geographic regions can only be found by spending quality time scouring local, state agency and University libraries for pertinent information.
As you gather existing studies and reports, maintain an annotated bibliography with complete citations. Note author(s), title, date, and place of publication (see example). As you develop the bibliography, it might be useful to sort items into categories, by type of information and/or geographic areas.
While much information is available in digitally mapped form, other maps may need to be created from information extracted from reports, photos or hard copy maps. Regardless of how your mapped data is obtained, keep track of metadata (data about the data). This will allow others to review your data sources.
As you gather mapped data create a working map portfolio that will allow mapped information to be overlain for the analysis tasks.
After a thorough search of existing reports and data, solicit review of your draft annotated bibliography and data source list from your local Advisory Group and Ecology SMP reviewer with a deadline for comments. Maintain a file documenting responses.
Be sure to address areas of special interest, such as rapidly developing waterfronts, or previously identified toxic or hazardous material clean-up sites. Some jurisdictions may want to create special area plans for such areas.

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