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Mid-Atlantic Regional Assessment: Overview Report
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Description:
This peer-reviewed report summarizes the findings of the first Mid-Atlantic Regional Assessment. The Mid-Atlantic Regional Assessment was led by a team from The Pennsylvania State University. The assessment was sponsored by and conducted in partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Global Change Research Program. The assessment team examined potential impacts of climate change and variability across the Mid-Atlantic Region, focusing on human health, fresh water quantity and quality, ecosystems, coastal zones, forests, and agriculture. The region studied included all or parts of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, and the District of Columbia, home to some 35 million people and two of the nation's largest estuaries -- the Chesapeake Bay and the Albemarle-Pamlico Sound. Many people contributed to the success of this undertaking, including more than 35 researchers at Penn State, other universities, the private sector, and government. Researchers in EPA's Mid-Atlantic Integrated Assessment Program(MAIA), as well as EPA's Region 3Office, also partnered in this assessment activity.
The assessment is the product of a stakeholder-oriented process. An Advisory Committee consisting of over 90 members from the private and public sectors have helped ensure that the assessment provides timely and useful information to a broad range of stakeholders in the region. The Mid-Atlantic Regional Assessment is one component of the U.S. Global Change Research Program's U.S. National Assessment of the potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change. The ongoing National Assessment process was mandated by Congress in the Global Change Research Act of 1990. The findings of the Mid-Atlantic Assessment will be consolidated with those from other regional and sectoral assessments into a report to Congress later this year. This report is being prepared by the National Assessment Synthesis Team (NAST). The NAST is a committee chartered under the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) with members drawn from government, academia, and the private sector.
The authors of the assessment report conclude that if the regional climate becomes generally warmer and wetter, as it is projected to do, ecosystems and biodiversity will be adversely affected, although the region's diverse and highly integrated economy will offset some detrimental effects. The vulnerability of the region's people and other resources to major climate-induced impacts may be reduced by declining agricultural and forestry production in the region, the use of varied energy sources and food supplies, modern public health practices, and climate-controlled environments in homes and workplaces.
Ecological impacts are expected to be most evident in the region's estuaries and coastal zones. Sea level rise will pose risks to coastal structures, wetlands and estuaries. The region may experience increased risk of salt-water intrusion into public and private drinking water supplies. The report calls for measures to improve the region's resilience to climate change and variability and to provide benefits regardless of climate change. Examples include improved flood and drought management, and watershed-based water quality protection. Also, avoiding development of vulnerable or sensitive ecological areas, such as flood plains and coastal zones, would benefit the region now. While adaptation appears feasible in many instances, the costs and effectiveness of adaptive responses to climate change are not known, and the availability of financial resources for adaptation is uncertain. Also, some aspects of ecosystem structure and function may be permanently altered by climate change.
