Monitoring | APNEP

Monitoring the environment to improve adaptive management

APNEP and its partners focus monitoring efforts on indicators of ecosystem condition, working to track progress towards ecosystem outcomes through establishment of a coordinated monitoring strategy.

Overview

Monitoring and assessment is an essential part of adaptive, ecosystem-based management, as it promotes accountability by evaluating whether or not management actions have resulted in progress toward stated environmental goals.

To ensure responsible stewardship of our sounds and the financial resources invested to protect them, APNEP coordinates with its agency partners to monitor and report on indicators of environmental health. The results of these monitoring efforts are compiled in a comprehensive assessment of the Albemarle-Pamlico ecosystem, which allows managers to target resources in areas where they are most needed.

2025-2030 Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan

Current Projects

Ecosystem Monitoring

As part of APNEP's efforts to implement adaptive management, the Partnership has been initiating holistic monitoring and assessment of key ecological indicators that will give APNEP and our partners information about the overall health of the Albemarle-Pamlico region.

Submerged Aquatic Vegetation Monitoring

APNEP has been a state leader in monitoring and assessing North Carolina's underwater grasses, or submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV). Alongside our partners, APNEP has developed a region-wide monitoring protocol for SAV, funded and facilitated the creation of the state's first maps of SAV extent, and led discussions about the future of the region's SAV resource.

Water Quality Monitoring

Water quality is essential to the overall health of the Albemarle-Pamlico estuarine system. To assist in ensuring that water quality issues are recognized and addressed, APNEP provides funding to to organizations monitoring water quality as gaps in data coverage are identified and as programmatic funds allow, including citizen science monitoring projects, recreational water quality monitoring, and river gauge funding.

Community Science

Public involvement in monitoring our region's ecosystems is essential, and APNEP seeks to facilitate and promote regional communty science opportunities both as educational tools and to assist with our wider monitoring efforts.

Water Level Monitoring in the Albemarle-Pamlico Sound

Due to low elevation and proximity to waterways, many areas of the Albemarle-Pamlico region are susceptible to flooding. In response, APNEP has funded the placement of three additional NC Flood Inundation Mapping and Alert Network (FIMAN) remote monitoring stations through the NC Division of Emergency Management.