The Texas Water Journal has published a new article in Volume 12, titled Estimating statistical power for detecting long term trends in surface water Escherichia coli concentrations, by Michael Schramm.
Water quality monitoring programs commonly use the Mann-Kendall test or linear regression to identify statistically significant monotonic trends in fecal indicator bacteria concentrations.
According to the abstract, the statistical power of these tests to detect trends of different magnitudes is rarely communicated to stakeholders. To better facilitate stakeholder decision-making, it is important to communicate the relative power of statistical tests and detectible magnitudes of changes.
The author suggests that data analysts conduct power analyses to improve monitoring program designs and improve communication of trend test limitations.
To learn more, read the full article.
The journal — an online, peer-reviewed journal published by the nonprofit the Texas Water Journal and the Texas Water Resources Institute — publishes papers as they are completed. It is devoted to the timely consideration of Texas water resources management, research and policy issues from a multidisciplinary perspective that integrates science, engineering, law, planning and other disciplines. It also provides updates on key state legislation and policy changes by Texas administrative agencies.
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