Grantee Research Project Results
1999 Progress Report: Environmental Condition On-Line DFW Metroplex (ECOPLEX)
EPA Grant Number: R827065Title: Environmental Condition On-Line DFW Metroplex (ECOPLEX)
Investigators: Dickson, Kenneth L. , Acevedo, Miguel F. , Atkinson, Samuel F. , Kennedy, James H. , Waller, William T. , Martin, Howard
Institution: City of Denton , University of North Texas
EPA Project Officer: Packard, Benjamin H
Project Period: November 1, 1998 through October 31, 2000 (Extended to December 31, 2001)
Project Period Covered by this Report: November 1, 1998 through October 31, 1999
Project Amount: $484,868
RFA: Environmental Monitoring for Public Access and Community Tracking (EMPACT) (1998) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Ecological Indicators/Assessment/Restoration , Environmental Statistics , Water , Air , Sustainable and Healthy Communities
Objective:
The objective of the ECOPLEX project is, through the use of both innovative and proven environmental monitoring technologies, to collect real time and time relevant environmental data that will be used to inform the citizens of the City of Denton, The Elm Fork Watershed, and the Dallas/Fort Worth metropolitan area of current, historical, and near-term forecasts of environmental conditions to which we are exposed.
Progress Summary:
A Web Site (http://www.ecoplex.unt.edu 
) has been established to help disseminate the real time
and near real time information being collected and organized as part of this
project. A rendering of the Web Page is shown in Figure 1. As the Web Page
shows, we have concentrated our efforts on the Sun (real time measures of
ultraviolet light), Air (hot link to State of Texas automated ozone site and to
the North Texas Council of government home page), Water Quality, Water Quantity,
Land, and Weather. The Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex has been declared in serious
violation of ozone standards. Real time measures of water quality are being
collected from near the water intake structure of the City of Denton located on
Lake Lewisville, a multipurpose reservoir in north central Texas. Measurements
of physical and chemical parameters include pH, temperature, conductivity,
dissolved oxygen, and turbidity. These parameters are collected from 1 meter
below the surface of Lake Lewisville and 1 meter off the bottom of Lake
Lewisville. In addition to the physical chemical data collected, clam gape?a
measure of whether or not a clam is open or closed and, if open, how wide open
it is?is being recorded in real time. Open living organisms integrate the
totality of their environment and the use of clam gape is an attempt to achieve
an understanding of the real-time conditions in the lake, at least as they
relate to this species. Another biological parameter that is being monitored at
the lake platform is chlorophyll a. Chlorophyll a can be used to understand
aspects of the trophic nature of the reservoir. A weather station installed
onshore near the location of the platform will provide real time weather
conditions for the reservoir. The water quality section of the Web Page is a hot
link to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Fort Worth District Office Web Page.
This Web Page includes information on many different aspects of the reservoirs
in the district. For example, one of the daily measures one can get from this
Web Site is lake level. Currently, Lake Lewisville is about 14 feet below the
conservation pool elevation. These data will be used to help inform and educate
the public as to the dynamics of multi-purpose reservoirs and how the actions of
the public can influence the water quality and quantity of their reservoirs. A
real-time satellite downlink is in the process of being ordered. When installed,
this facility will provide real-time information on land use in the area. While
satellite images obtained over short intervals are not necessarily useful in
land use change analysis, the archived data should provide a significant
resource for education and research into the relationships between land use
changes and resource impacts. The weather link on our Web Site contains data for
Dallas, Fort Worth, and Denton. In addition, radar and satellite images of
current weather conditions are available. The Teacher's Corner component of our
Web Site is a big part of our effort to relate the real-time and near real-time
information collected and organized on our Web Page to the public in general,
and to school children, primarily K?8. We have a team of teachers that is
developing curricula surrounding each of the major components on the Web Page.
They focused their initial attention on the real-time data from the UV monitor
and have developed lessons for K?6. Materials to support the curriculum for UV
are being ordered. In addition to developing the curricula, the teachers will
"take the show on the road" to increase exposure to teachers in local school
districts.
The Landscape component of our Web page will be evolving over the
next several months as teachers using the information and curricula we provide
give us feedback on what works and does not work for them.
Future Activities:
Future activities include completion of the real time monitoring sites proposed for inclusion in this project. This means getting the Lake Lewisville platform completed and online, and the implementation of a similar site to be located on Pecan Creek, a tributary to Lake Lewisville. The City of Denton's wastewater treatment plant is located on Pecan Creek. The site established on Pecan Creek for this project will be below the discharge of the wastewater treatment plant. Another site, funded from another source, will be located above the wastewater treatment plant discharge. The summer of 2000 will provide the time for the major efforts toward curricula development for the K?8 education effort. Workshops will be held to instruct teachers how to access the real time and archived information and use it as part of their science/social science curricula. Two activities that were not proposed as part of the project, but for which we hope to be able to incorporate, are real-time photos from the Lake Lewisville site and atmospheric ozone levels. Understanding the differences between "good" ozone and "bad" ozone is often difficult. Given the status of air quality in the Dallas/Forth Worth metroplex, this is an important issue. Because the real-time satellite downlink we are deploying has a tracking system, we hope to be able to mount an atmospheric ozone monitor to this dish and use it to give us real time atmospheric ozone conditions. Monitoring both ground level and atmospheric ozone should give us a good opportunity to explain the differences.
Journal Articles:
No journal articles submitted with this report: View all 41 publications for this projectSupplemental Keywords:
biomonitoring, real time, ozone, ultraviolet light, education, reservoir, land use, biosensor, chlorophyll a, stormwater, monitoring, remote sensing, bioaccumulation, water., RFA, Health, Ecosystem Protection/Environmental Exposure & Risk, Scientific Discipline, Air, Geographic Area, Susceptibility/Sensitive Population/Genetic Susceptibility, Ecological Risk Assessment, State, Ecology, genetic susceptability, Environmental Chemistry, tropospheric ozone, Monitoring/Modeling, Hydrology, air toxics, air quality, human exposue, predictive model, environmental hazard exposures, health risks, sensitive populations, human health, monitoring stations, public health alerts, time-relevant monitoring, water quality, real time monitoring, stratospheric ozone, community-based approach, environmental monitoring, community-based, human exposure, public access, public outreach, real-time monitoring, atmospheric monitoring, monitoring, web site development, children, meteorology, ozone , ambient air, ozone, VOCs, toxics, air pollutants, air pollution, ecosystem restoration, public information, Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), EMPACT, chlorophyl, Texas (TX)Relevant Websites:
Progress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractThe perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.