Before any monitoring can occur, objectives must be specified and detailed. The sample questions posed here are too general and vague. What is meant by "quality and condition"? What is a "lake"? Although we can assume that people know what each of these terms mean, we need to define each term in order to fully take advantage of the conclusions we can make in the monitoring process.

As an example, let our objective be to describe the current ecological condition of flowing waters of the West. The West is designated by using EPA Regions 8, 9, and 10. The three areas are of interest are: the region as a whole, the three EPA regions, and the specific States. For each of these areas we want determine the following:

• Total stream and river channel length.
• Total Perennial stream and river channel length.
• Total Non-Perennial stream and river channel length.
• Total stream and river channel length by natural and constructed channels.

In order to proceed with this survey, we need to define the following terms: perennial, non-perennial, stream, river, and condition. Once these are clearly defined and understood, meeting the overall objective of describing the condition of flowing waters in the West can be accomplished.