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INTEGRATION OF COASTAL ENVIRONMENTAL INDICATORS FOR THE U.S. MID-ATLANTIC REGION
Citation:
Paul, J F. AND T. B. DeMoss. INTEGRATION OF COASTAL ENVIRONMENTAL INDICATORS FOR THE U.S. MID-ATLANTIC REGION. Presented at 5th Annual NHEERL Symposium, Indicators in Health and Environmental Risk Assessment, Research Triangle Park, NC, June 6-8, 2000.
Description:
The Mid-Atlantic Integrated Assessment (MAlA) Project began in 1994 as a partnership between USEPA's Region III Office and Office of Research and Development. This multi-year initiative was envisioned to: (1) improve the quality of environmental science and promote the use of sound science in environmental decision-making; (2) characterize the condition of ecological resources; and (3) report on the progress toward environmental goals through a series of State of the Region reports. These reports are produced using a coordinated, integrated approach that is carried out at four levels of increasing sophistication and complexity. Level ll is the assessment of indicators for individual ecological resources such as estuaries, steams/rivers, forests, agroecosystems, landscapes, and wetlands. Level II assessments develop associations between indicators of resource condition (Levell) and stressors for each ecological resource area. MAlA is currently working on Levels I and II. For Level III assessments, MAlA will integrate land cover and landscape activities with indicators of the ecological condition of individual resources at geographic scales from local communities to region. Level IV assessment will integrate stressor-effect associations across ecological resources.
In September 1996, Vice President AI Gore challenged federal agencies to work with the scientific community, state and local agencies, and non-governmental organizations to produce a "report card" on the health of our Nation's ecosystems by 2001. MAlA's response to the Vice President's challenge was the production of the State of the Region reports evaluating the status and trends of the regional ecosystems. At present, MAlA is partnering with federal agencies, states, non-profit organizations, and local communities, to characterize, through sound science, the environmental condition of ecological resources, the stressors associated with degraded resources, as well as the connection of stressors to land cover and landscape changes. The reports are now being produced. Lessons learned from the use of indicators in the production of these reports will be reviewed.