The National Coastal Condition Assessment (NCCA) is a statistical survey of the condition of our Nation’s marine and Great Lakes coasts. The NCCA builds from previous National Coastal Assessments. 

Goals

The goals of the NCCA are to address two key questions about the quality of the Nation’s coastal waters.

• What percent of the Nation’s coastal waters are in good, fair, and poor condition for key indicators of water quality, ecological health, and recreation? ƒ 
• What is the relative importance of key stressors such as nutrients and contaminated sediments? 

Sampling Schedule

The first NCCA sampling field season was conducted in 2010. The resulting report from this survey can be found on the National Coastal Condition Assessment 2010 Results page.  

The most recent field season was conducted in 2015.  

The sampling design for this survey is a probability-based network that provides statistically-valid estimates of the condition of all coastal waters with known confidence. It is designed using modern survey techniques. Sample sites are selected at random to represent the condition of all coastal waters across each region and the nation as a whole. 

Target Waters

The NCCA sampling is comprised of coastal waters extending from the shoreline to the nearshore boundary of the open water of the oceans and Great Lakes. The assessment is limited to the fringing, shallow band of coastal waters most heavily used by humans and most vulnerable to activities within adjacent coastal watersheds.

NCCA evaluates four indices of condition—water quality, sediment quality, benthic community condition, and fish tissue contaminants – to evaluate the ecological condition and recreational potential of coastal waters. Consistent sampling and analytical procedures ensure that the results can be compared across the country and over time. 

_{**Human health fish tissue contaminants were assessed in the Great Lakes only}

For general descriptions of the indicators used for NCCA as well as those used in the lakes survey (NLA), the rivers and streams survey (NRSA), and the wetlands survey, please visit the Indicators used in the National Aquatic Resource Surveys page.