Abstract |
The goal of ORD's Regional Vulnerability Assessment (ReVA) Program is to develop approaches to quantifying regional ecological vulnerabilities so that risk management activities can be targeted and prioritized. ReVA's focus is to develop a set of methods that are applicable to the range of data available in regions (e.g., physiography, land use/cover change, change in climate, air pollution, non-indigenous species (NIS), the distribution and condition of resources, and others) and provide information to facilitate decision-making at the regional, watershed, and local scale. Information will be integrated to allow an assessment of the cumulative risks associated with multiple stressors on multiple resources, to identify the specific geographic areas of concern, and to evaluate the particular stressors that offer the greatest sources of vulnerability. The application of the tools developed by ReVA should allow decision-makers to put environmental issues in perspective and will provide the spatial context necessary to improve decision making at the watershed and community level. |