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:

In support of the National Science and Technology Council's cross-Agency priority of Integrated Science for Ecological Challenges (ISEC) EPA is conducting research to improve capabilities in the area of regional vulnerability assessment and ecological forecasting. EPA's research efforts in this area will develop methods and models to integrate available information and give EPA, state, and local community-based environmental partners capability to identify current and future ecological vulnerabilities and to evaluate trade-offs associated with alternative risk reduction activities. Within the framework of ORD's Ecological Research Strategy (1998), work under this initiative is designed to address the question of what is the relative risk posed by stressors [identified through monitoring] now and in the future? As a pilot study, the Regional Vulnerability Assessment (ReVA) Program will continue working in partnership with Region III and other state and federal partners in the mid-Atlantic region as part of the Mid-Atlantic integrated Assessment (MAIA). ReVA will build on research that has already been conducted as part of this regional effort and will estimate current and future distributions of 5 stressor groups implicated by the Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP) in the decline of biological populations: (1) land use change; (2) pollution/pollutants; (3) non-indigenous invasive species; (4) resource extraction; and (5) climate change. ReVA will also estimate the distribution of valued resources in the region and will develop methods to measure their sustainability in terms of current and future environmental risk. Results of these assessment activities will be communicated through alternative future scenarios and by linking changes in environmental indicators with changes in socioeconomic indicators.

ReVA is a cross-ORD and inter-agency research initiative that will both build on and enhance other agencies' effort in support of ISEC. Administratively housed in the National Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL), ReVA's core research will build on the pioneering work of the Landscape Sciences Program (Landscape Ecology Branch, LEB) and Landscape Characterization Branch (LCB) within the Environmental Sciences Division (ESD) of NERL. Initial activities will focus on assessment at the regional scale through the development of exposure models that combine stressor distributions with ecological resource distributions. Exposure models provide an estimate for every point in the region, thus providing a framework for scaling down to the watershed and local level. Recognizing that environmental decision-making most often occurs at the local level, ReVA will partner with stakeholders to demonstrate applications of the assessment information at all scales.

Record Details:

Record Type:PROJECT

Start Date:10/01/2000

Projected Completion Date:10/01/2008

OMB Category:Other

Record ID: 29225

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Project Information:

Progress :

The first assessment product for the mid-Atlantic region, an evaluation of 11 integration methods, is available on the ReVA website. Additional data and future scenarios for the second assessment product, a vulnerability assessment of the region considering cumulative impacts from the 5 major drivers of change (land use change, spread of non-indigenous species, changes in pollution and pollutants, resource extraction, and climate change) has been completed and will soon be available on the ReVA website (work is underway to make 504-compliant). The second report is on target for completion in early FY 04.

Results of the analysis of integration methods have been incorporated into our web-based decision-tool (Environmental Decision Toolkit (EDT)) and a public version of the EDT is complete and will be publically deployed in late 2004. A pre-release "Guided Tour" of the EDT was made available on CD in early 2004. Prototype versions of the EDT with expanded anlaysis capabilities have been made available to our client partners.

A number of partnerships are in place to demonstrate the application of ReVA tools, approach, and information towards decision-making at a number of scales. These include partnerships with the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection, MD Dept. of Natural Resources, Baltimore County Dept. of Environmental Quality, State and local governments in a 15-county region in North and South Carolina support of the Sustainable Environment for Quality of Life (SEQL) project there. Additionally initial plans are underway for working in collaboration with Regions 4 and 5.

We have established links with the European Community to share research results and future collaboratory opportunities and will be participating in cross-agency workshops focusing tools for sustainability in May 2005.

In addition, we have maintained communications tools that will allow for our cooperators, clients and customers to be better abreast of developments.

The ReVA Website (http:www.epa.gov/reva) is periodically updated with new information.

A quarterly ReVA Update with up-to-date information on the ReVA program

A number of ReVA factsheets that focus on different aspects of our research.

A Special Issue of Environmental Monitoring and Assessment was published in June 2004 featuring research presented at the 2003 National ReVA Conference

The ReVA Strategy, Stressor Atlas, Methods report, downloadable version of the EDT Guided Tour are available on internet.

The following products, which are shared between ReVA Task 5449 and ISEC Task 8877, have been completed:



Relevance :The partners, customers, and stakeholders for this research include regional decision-makers (e.g., EPA regional offices and state regulatory agencies), environmental and social advocacy groups (e.g., the Canaan Valley Institute), planners at the regional- to local-level, and communities.

What is needed are:

methods to synthesize existing information (including disparate data collected for different purposes, data reported at different units, methods to integrate available information into rankings of risk);

methods to target which ecosystems are currently under the greatest stress and are thus currently the most vulnerable;

methods to identify which ecosystems will be the most vulnerable in the future under different policy scenarios;

methods to compare the risk associated with individual stressors;

readily available and easily useable models, data, and tools to facilitate exploration of a variety of alternative scenarios;

methods to quantify and combine estimates of error and uncertainty; and

training and technology transfer that will allow customers and partners to update data and incorporate model improvements as they become available.

To ensure that we are meeting these needs, we have initiated a number of partnerships with clients, EPA Offices, and with stakeholders (see section on "Status and Timeline"). We are focused on applying techniques as they are developed, allowing client and stakeholder feedback which is then used to improve the research. We are developing techniques that synthesize primarily existing data and model results and the development of new models and indicators emphasizes simple approaches that can be easily adopted by the clients. We are also placing heavy emphasis on methods to quantify and estimate error and uncertainty such that effective margins of error can be identified for risk reduction strategies.

Clients : EPA Regions, other ORD Laboratories, EPA Office of Water, EPA Office of Prevention, Pesticides, and Toxic Substances, Office of Air and Radiation, Office of Environmental Information, Chesapeake Bay Program, Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Pro

Project IDs:

ID Code :8877

Project type :OMIS