Grantee Research Project Results
2000 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, 1999 through October 31, 2000
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:
In our last update, we reported the establishment of a Web site (www.ecoplex.unt.edu) to help disseminate the real-time and near real-time information being collected and organized as part of this project. A new rendering of the Web page is shown below. The Web page has changed some since the last report, but not dramatically. As we reported in 1999, the "Teacher's Corner" is a big component of our effort to reach the public, and involves relating the real-time and near real-time information collected and organized on our Web page to the public in general and to school kids, primarily K-8. The team of teachers from the local school system who were hired to develop curricula based on the real-time and time-relevant information on ECOPLEX have accomplished that task, and these plans are located on the Web under the Teacher's Corner link. If you look at the Teacher's Corner on the ECOPLEX page, you will see that the curricula have been developed to meet the requirements (TEKs) for the state of Texas. The next task will be to hold several workshops to "teach" the teachers how to implement the curriculum for their grade level, and to provide them with the materials to do so.Additionally, a second real-time monitoring site has been deployed on Pecan Creek, one of the subwatersheds within the city of Denton. This site is located below the water reclamation plant operated by the city. The information gathered in real time at this site includes the following physical chemical parameters: dissolved oxygen, temperature, depth, specific conductance, turbidity, pH, chlorophyll, and fluorescence. Clam gape also is monitored at this station. These data can be observed in near real time on the ECOPLEX Web site; the historical data also are archived and available. Flow at this site is dominated by the discharge from the water reclamation plant during normal conditions. However, consistent with intermittent creeks of this type, it is very flashy during storm events (i.e., it responds very rapidly to runoff from rainfall events).
The city of Denton has established, as part of its storm water program, a series of stations scattered across three subwatersheds within the city limits. These stations are equipped with physical and chemical probes. The data from these probes will be reported on the ECOPLEX Web page as soon as the link between the city of Denton and the University of North Texas (where the ECOPLEX server is located) is completed. These data will be displayed through an interactive map that will permit users to point to a particular station near their residence or school to display the most recent data from that station. These data also will be archived, and the historical data will be available to the user. These stations are a part of the high water flow warning system of the city. When conditions exist that require the closing of certain roads, the information will be displayed prominently on the ECOPLEX Web page as a flashing warning.
The landscape of our Web page will be evolving over the next several months, as teachers using the information and curricula that we provide give us feedback on what works and does not work for them.
Future Activities:
Future activities include holding three to four workshops for teachers in the region, based on the curricula presented in the Teacher's Corner of the ECOPLEX Web page. We will continue to pursue funding for instrumentation that will allow us to measure stratospheric ozone levels. The north Texas area, including the Dallas/Fort Worth/Denton metroplex, is a nonattainment area for ozone. The concept of "good" and "bad" ozone is causing considerable confusion. Because we get the real-time ground level ozone measurements from network monitors in the region, and that information is posted on the ECOPLEX Web site, it seems natural that real-time measurements of stratospheric ozone levels and an explanation of both would be a good addition to the curricula already developed for ozone. Including the real-time data from the city of Denton's storm water monitoring sites will help us "personalize" the water quality data for the teachers using the ECOPLEX Web site to teach lessons on water quantity and quality.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, landuse, 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:
http://www.ecoplex.unt.edu
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.