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Natural Resource Condition Assessment (NRCA)
Natural Resource Condition Assessment (NRCA) projects evaluate and report current conditions, critical data gaps, and selected threat and stressor condition influences for a subset of important park natural resources. These are typically natural resources or features that are unique to the park or represent an integral component of ecosystems and landscapes in the park. To accomplish such an assessment, existing scientific data and information is gathered from a variety of NPS and non-NPS sources and interpreted. Those natural resources that are targeted for evaluation depend upon individual park needs and resource settings, the status of park-level resource stewardship planning and maturity of the process for identifying priority indicators for that park, and availability of useful data and qualified expertise to assess current condition for each priority resource or component.
For more information regarding topics such as the history of program, national and regional contacts, standards and guidelines refer to the programs website:
NPS NRCA guidelines
Key Steps in the NRCA Process
The key steps involved in conducting an NRCA and constructing a final document include:
- Scoping
GeoSpatial Services visits the park to meet with park personnel and resource specialists. The goal of the meeting is to determine the factors that are important to the park for inclusion in the assessment.
- Create a Framework of key Resources for the park.
The creation of the framework requires collaboration between GSS and NPS natural resource managers and experts. A framework will contain multiple components (key park resources that are currently important to park management and that will receive individual assessments in NRCA document.
Example NRCA Framework
- Collaborate with park experts to identify appropriate measures, stressors, and reference conditions.
Once a set of component resources is agreed upon, measures, stressors, and reference conditions are indentified for each. Identifying reliable measures and stressors commonly used in monitoring the condition of resource components helps analysts evaluate the scientific information that is relevant to overall condition. Reference condition(s) serves as a baseline for comparison of current condition; this may be a specific point in time, an ecological threshold, or an established mandated standard. For more information regarding reference condition (as this is often a challenging part of the framework development) see the NRCA Program website listed above.
Instruction for Identifying and Scoring Measures
- Assemble data sources and existing/current literature for the assessments.
GSS coordinates with park resource staff to obtain as much information as possible, relevant to the components in the framework (e.g. literature, spreadsheet data, spatial data). This includes information housed at the park, the network, or even regional or national offices. GSS will also utilize some supplemental data from NPS partners, and literature from outside the NPS.
- Begin analysis of key natural resource components from framework.
This step includes a review and analysis of all data and literature deemed relevant for the assessment. During this review, GSS works closely with park experts to understand all necessary aspects of each component, such as data caveats and interpretations.
- Construct component assessments
Each component from the framework is analyzed separately and is documented in its own stand-alone section of the assessment report with its own literature cited section. Each component section is reviewed by the NPS topical experts that have been identified as the most appropriate source of knowledge and expertise regarding the measures and interpretation of the information for each component.
- Construct NRCA report
This is the last step in the NRCA process when all the component assessment sections are brought together into one report document. Also included is a chapter that sets the context for each park and its natural resource setting, as well as a discussion chapter that focuses on overall findings.
NRCAs are intended to complement more rigorous NPS science support programs such as those associated with the NPS Inventory and Monitoring Program. They bring in relevant non-NPS data to help evaluate current or historic conditions for given park resource components, providing additional information to monitoring programs. Information developed through monitoring efforts such as the NPS “Vital Signs” program can inform the NRCA process and, in some cases, NRCAs provide information regarding the current condition of a resource that can help establish reference conditions or baselines for future monitoring work. If the NRCAs are repeated in the future, information can then be compared to determine change in resource conditions over time. Finally, NRCAs are intended to represent a synthesis of existing data and literature for the key resources of a given park, which assists future natural resource planning activities and provides background information for future park resource staff.
NRCAs do not establish management targets for study indicators, nor do they evaluate current management directives. All decisions about management targets are made through sanctioned park planning and management processes. However, NRCAs do provide science-based information that will help park managers with an ongoing, longer term effort to describe and quantify the desired resource conditions and management targets for different parks.
Currently, GeoSpatial Services is involved with developing a number of condition assessments in the continental United States and Alaska. The first assessment was for the Wrangell-Saint Elias National Park and Preserve in Alaska; the largest park in the National Park System. This project provided a good learning opportunity and orientation to the NRCA process.
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