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USE OF REVA'S WEB-BASED ENVIRONMENTAL DECISION TOOLKIT (EDT) TO ASSESS VULNERABILITY TO MERCURY ACROSS THE UNITED STATES
Citation:
WAGNER, P. F., E. R. SMITH, AND M. H. MEHAFFEY. USE OF REVA'S WEB-BASED ENVIRONMENTAL DECISION TOOLKIT (EDT) TO ASSESS VULNERABILITY TO MERCURY ACROSS THE UNITED STATES. Presented at EPA 2005 National Forum on Contaminants in Fish, Baltimore, MD, September 19, 2005.
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:
The problem of assessing risk from mercury across the nation is extremely complex involving integration of 1) our understanding of the methylation process in ecosystems, 2) the identification and spatial distribution of sensitive populations, and 3) the spatial pattern of mercury deposition. Unfortunately, both our understanding of the processes involved, and the availability of data to make this assessment are currently imperfect, yet there are effective ways to make use of data and information that currently exist.