View SCCWRP’s full thematic Research Plan for Regional Monitoring (PDF)
2026-2027 Executive Summary
Southern California environmental managers and scientists spend an estimated $50 million every year on monitoring aquatic environments, but have struggled to answer the big-picture questions being asked by the public: “Is it safe to swim in the ocean?” “Are locally caught fish safe to eat?” and “Are local ecosystems adequately protected?” The reason? Most of this money is allocated to keep tabs on the relatively compact areas that surround specific outfalls – monitoring that is required under state and federal laws. Consequently, when scientists compile this compliance-based monitoring data from dozens of agencies, the resulting regional picture is incomplete. Recognizing this challenge, SCCWRP has stepped in to coordinate and facilitate wide-scale regional monitoring programs across a variety of habitats, including streams, wetlands, estuaries, beaches and coastal waters. For each monitoring program, SCCWRP works with dozens of local and regional agencies to standardize data collection and coordinate analysis efforts, leveraging the limited resources of many to obtain comprehensive data on some of the region’s most pressing environmental challenges. These programs are among the top regional monitoring programs in the nation and have served as models for developing similar programs internationally.
SCCWRP’s best-known monitoring program is the Southern California Bight Regional Monitoring Program, conducted every five years since the mid-1990s. The ongoing program mobilizes participating agencies to collect data from across a much greater spatial area than just their outfall zones, allowing environmental managers to paint a comprehensive picture of the health of coastal waters that stretch from Point Conception in Santa Barbara County to just south of the U.S.-Mexico border. The Bight program’s freshwater counterpart, the Southern California Stormwater Monitoring Coalition (SMC) Regional Watershed Monitoring Program, was launched in 2009 to monitor an area that stretches from the Ventura River in Ventura County to the Tijuana River straddling the U.S.-Mexico border. SCCWRP also is helping to develop and implement a statewide program to monitor the health and resiliency of estuaries and other coastal habitats. Finally, SCCWRP is generating comparable data on the performance effectiveness of stormwater BMPs throughout Southern California through the SMC’s Regional BMP Monitoring Network (see Stormwater BMPs research theme). The key to success in developing integrated monitoring designs is SCCWRP’s ability to bring all parties to the table – from local and regional agencies to state and federal entities – to work toward agreement on goals, study design and data interpretation. Not only do the comprehensive data sets help environmental managers establish appropriate priorities and goals for addressing big-picture challenges, but regional monitoring also fosters productive interactions among dischargers and regulators as they develop and collaboratively interpret monitoring information and implement findings. Regional monitoring also provides an important launching platform for SCCWRP’s member agencies and research collaborators to test new technologies and assessment tools.
This year, SCCWRP will continue to coordinate multiple regional monitoring programs and initiatives across Southern California and beyond. SCCWRP’s focus for 2026-2027 will be on:
- Regional marine monitoring (Bight ’23): SCCWRP is wrapping up the 2023 cycle of the Southern California Bight Regional Monitoring Program (Bight ’23), one of the largest and longest running marine monitoring programs in the country. Bight ’23 consists of seven elements: Sediment Quality, Ocean Acidification and Hypoxia, Trash and Microplastics, Harmful Algal Blooms, Shoreline Microbiology, Estuarine Condition, and Submerged Aquatic Vegetation Condition. The Bight program is an integrated, ongoing regional monitoring collaboration that provides holistic answers to questions regarding the extent and magnitude of anthropogenic effects, the range of natural variability upon which scientists evaluate these effects, and shifting baselines of natural condition as global pressures alter even untouched parts of the coast. During each Bight cycle, SCCWRP facilitates the development of study designs, data management plans, data analysis, and co-authoring of final assessment reports. Since its inception in 1994, the Bight program has conducted comprehensive monitoring of approximately 1,500 square miles of near-coastal ocean, with more than 2,000 sites sampled.
- Regional watershed monitoring: SCCWRP is facilitating the ongoing Southern California Stormwater Monitoring Coalition (SMC) Regional Watershed Monitoring Program, including coordinating field sampling activities for the regional survey. SCCWRP is focused on facilitating the program during a one-year transitional period that follows the completion of the 2021-2025 cycle. SCCWRP will prepare a synthesis report that answers key questions, like: What is the overall condition of watersheds in the region? What stressors are likely causes of poor conditions? Have conditions gotten better or worse since the survey began? While data analysis for this report is underway, SCCWRP will also facilitate the development of a new workplan to oversee the program’s next five-year monitoring cycle of this program, with new questions expected to focus on evaluating the benefits of stream restorations, the impacts of channel maintenance, and other issues concerning the management of engineered channels.
- Statewide estuary and submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) monitoring: SCCWRP is supporting the implementation of statewide and regional programs for monitoring the health of coastal estuaries and SAV meadows. The monitoring programs use a standard set of indicators and associated protocols to evaluate ecological functioning across highly heterogenous systems. Monitoring outputs will be contextualized regionally using both a network of sentinel sites and probabilistic sampling, which have been integrated into the regional monitoring programs. . SCCWRP is also supporting development of scoring tools (indices) for both estuaries and SAV beds, and development of advanced data management and data visualization systems to improve coordination across statewide programs and to enhance access to data and data products for agencies and the public.
