ABSTRACT
Water monitoring is essential for sustainable water management. In order to plan for the future, one must know about water quality and quantity. Monitoring is the activity of observing conditions in a system. It is defined as “to watch, keep track of, or check usually for a special purpose” (Merriam-Webster 2015). In the case of monitoring natural waters, our “special purpose” is to track the movement of water over and within the surface of the earth in terms of both water quality and quantity. It is analogous to a physician checking the pulse of a patient. A good water monitoring program tracks the “pulse” of a natural system.
