To ensure that sample locations are selected in an unbiased manner, a hexagonal grid is used to define sampling areas in IMAP.  IMAP samples on two different scales: statewide and regional. The regions correspond to Florida’s 5 Water Management Districts (WMD). At both scales, sample sites are determined randomly within a network of hexagonal grids. IMAP does not have the resources to characterize the variation in each indicator over fine spatial and temporal scales. Because of this limitation, the IMAP sampling design focuses on characterizing spatial differences. IMAP will sample only once a year, but cover several locations throughout the state during each sampling period.  In order for this strategy to work, there must be an identifiable time window (an index period) within which inshore resources are under significant stress, and conditions are not changing dramatically. Although there are exceptions, for most of Florida, a late summer index period meets these criteria.  Under this framework, IMAP will sample 180 stations each year during a concentrated late-summer index period.  One-hundred-fifty sites are selected within the fine-scale sampling units, while an additional 30 sites are selected across the coarser statewide grid.  More detailed information on sampling locations within the sampling units is available in the map below.  More information on the statewide-scale sampling is available here.