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EPA'S REGIONAL VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT PROGRAM: USING MONITORING DATA AND MODEL RESULTS TO TARGET ACTIONS
Citation:
Smith, E R., R. V. O'Neill, J D. Wickham, AND K B. Jones. EPA'S REGIONAL VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT PROGRAM: USING MONITORING DATA AND MODEL RESULTS TO TARGET ACTIONS. Chapter 32, G. Bruce Wiersma (ed.), Environmental Monitoring: A Reference Text. CRC Press - Lewis Publishers, Boca Raton, FL, , 480-498, (2004).
Impact/Purpose:
Provide regional-scale, spatially explicit information on the extent and distribution of both stressors and sensitive resources.
Develop and evaluate techniques to integrate information on exposure and effects so that relative risk can be assessed and management actions can be prioritized.
Predict consequences of potential environmental changes under alternative future scenarios.
Effectively communicate economic and quality of life trade-offs associated with alternative environmental policies.
Develop techniques to prioritize areas for ecological restoration.
Identify information gaps and recommend actions to improve monitoring and focus research.
There are two task objectives that reflect the work done by LCB in support of the ReVA Program objectives:
Provide information management, spatial analysis support, and data and information accessibility for the ReVA Program
Provide program management support, technology transfer, and outreach.
Description:
Until recently, ecological studies and management practices were conducted and implemented at local scales. During the past two decades, however, it has become clear that evaluations of environmental problems and management practices cannot be considered only at local scales. Increasingly, acidic deposition, global climate change, atmospheric contaminant transport, transformation and fate, forest fragmentation, biodiversity loss, and land use changes have been recognized as problems that have to be addressed at broader scales. Local scale assessments continue to provide valuable information, but expanded knowledge about broader scale problems and their contribution to local scale problems, as well as the cumulative effects of local scale issues, is needed. Unfortunately, many traditional approaches and tools are not applicable at broader scales. Approaches for collecting, analyzing, and interpreting information have to be modified or developed if efficacious management practices are to be implemented to ameliorate local, regional, and global scale problems. Drawing inferences requires more than just aggregating existing local site data.