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1.1 Purpose—This guide is intended to provide general guidance on a watershed monitoring program directed toward the plant nutrients nitrogen and phosphorus. The guide offers a series of general steps without setting forth a specific course of action. It gives assistance for developing a monitoring program but not a program for implementing measures to improve water quality.

1.2 This guide applies to waters found in streams and rivers; lakes, ponds, and reservoirs; estuaries; wetlands; the atmosphere; and the vadose and subsurface saturated zones (including aquifers). This guide does not apply to nutrients found in soils, plants, or animals.

1.3 Nutrients as used in this guide are intended to include nitrogen and phosphorus in dissolved, gaseous, and particulate forms. Specific species of nitrogen include: nitrate, nitrite, ammonia, organic, total Kjeldahl, and nitrous oxide. The species of phosphorus include total, total dissolved, organic, acid-hydrolyzable, and reactive phosphorus as described in Ref (2).

1.4 Safety—Health and safety practices developed for a project may need to consider the following:

1.5 The values stated in SI units are to be regarded as standard. No other units of measurement are included in this standard.

1.6 This standard does not purport to address all of the safety concerns, if any, associated with its use. It is the responsibility of the user of this standard to establish appropriate safety, health, and environmental practices and determine the applicability of regulatory limitations prior to use.

1.7 This international standard was developed in accordance with internationally recognized principles on standardization established in the Decision on Principles for the Development of International Standards, Guides and Recommendations issued by the World Trade Organization Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Committee.

4.1 The user of this guide is not assumed to be a trained technical practitioner in the water quality field. The guide is an assembly of the components common to all aspect of watershed nutrient monitoring and fulfills a need in the development of a common framework for a better coordinated and a more unified approach to nutrient monitoring in watersheds.

4.2 Limitations—This guide does not establish a standard procedure to follow in all situations and it does not cover the detail necessary to meet all of the needs of a particular monitoring objective. Other standards and guides included in the references describe the detail of the procedures.