You are here:
THE EFFECTS OF UNCERTAINTY ON ESTIMATING THE RELATIVE ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY OF WATERSHEDS ACROSS A REGION
Citation:
SMITH, BETSY R., P. MCKINNIS, L. T. TRAN, AND R. V. O'NEILL. THE EFFECTS OF UNCERTAINTY ON ESTIMATING THE RELATIVE ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY OF WATERSHEDS ACROSS A REGION. LANDSCAPE ECOLOGY. Springer, New York, NY, 21:225-231, (2006).
Impact/Purpose:
ReVA's program objectives are to:
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.
Description:
Landscape ecologists may be faced with ranking the relative environmental quality of watersheds across a region. The results show that watersheds in the best and the worst condition have rankings that are robust to uncertainty but intermediate watersheds may be difficult or impossible to assign to a rank.