The importance of monitoring and assessment to the management and protection of wetlands has become widely recognized. Wetland assessments are made at multiple intensity levels based on data quality, the application scale, available resources, and the level of effort involved in data collection. We used multiple regression to calibrate the output of a rapid assessment method to condition scores derived from a comprehensive assessment. Data collected at riverine, depression, and flat wetlands in the Nanticoke and Inland Bays watersheds of Delaware and Maryland were used to calibrate the Delaware Rapid Assessment Protocol to an Index of Wetland Condition (IWC) derived from hydrogeomorphic variables. The resulting calibrated rapid condition score was highly correlated with the intense IWC score in each wetland type (r = .88 for riverine, r = .82 for depressions and flats). The calibration methodology was also robust with respect to different statistical cutoff values and model selection methods. Our approach provides a quantitative alternative to using best professional judgment to determine rapid assessment scoring coefficients. Additionally, when rapid and comprehensive methods are correlated, double sampling, a statistical sampling method, can be used to increase the overall sample size resulting in either increased precision of condition estimates or lower sampling costs.
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