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AN OVERVIEW OF EPA'S REGIONAL VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT (REVA) PROGRAM
Citation:
Smith, E R. AN OVERVIEW OF EPA'S REGIONAL VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT (REVA) PROGRAM. Presented at Envrionmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP) Symposium, San Francisco, CA, April 6-8, 1999.
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:
Regional Vulnerability Assessment (ReVA) is a, approach to place-based ecological risk assessment that is currently under development by ORD. The pilot assessment will be done for the Mid-Atlantic region and builds on data collected for EMAP. ReVA is being developed to identify those ecosystems most vulnerable to being lost in the next 5 to 50 Years and to elucidate which stressors cause the greatest risk to ecosystem goods and services. The goal here, is not exact predictions, but a first-cut early warning system to identify and prioritize the undesirable environmental changes We should expect over the next few decades. As such ReVA represents a new risk
paradigm for EPA that will require innovative approaches to combine existing knowledge, focus new research, and synthesize rarely types of information into a meaningful assessment designed to inform environmental decision-makers about future environmental risk.
To develop the regional assessment will involve four interacting functions. First, data on stessors and effects from many Sources must be placed into the spatial context and synthesized using the capabilities of Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Second, a core research component must fill critical gaps in our ability to apply the data at the landscape and regional scale and to understandhow socio-economic drivers affect environmental conditions. Third, an assessment compartment must keep the Project grounded in the real world by actually applying the data and risk assessment techniques to specific regions. Finally, the data and analytical tools must be transferred into the hands of regional managers. This final step is critical to assuring that the results of the research can be applied to continuing regional assessments.