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REGIONAL SCALE COMPARATIVE RISK ASSESSMENT

Contact

http://cfpub.epa.gov/si/si_public_comments.cfm

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:

Regional Vulnerability Assessment (ReVA) is an approach to regional-scale ecological risk assessment that is currently under development by EPA's Office of Research and Development. The pilot assessment will be done for the mid-Atlantic region and builds on data collected for the Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP) and other monitoring efforts. ReVA is being developed to identify those ecosystems most vulnerable to being lost or degraded in the next 5 to 25 years and to elucidate which stressors cause the greatest risk to ecosystem goods and services. The goal here is not exact predictions, but an early warning system to identify and prioritize the undesirable environmental changes we should expect over the next few decades. As such, ReVA represents a new risk paradigm for EPA that will require innovative approaches to combine existing knowledge, focus new research, and synthesize many types of information into a meaningful assessment designed to inform environmental decision-makers about future environmental risk.

ReVA is a cross-ORD and interagency research initiative. Administratively housed in the National Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL), ReVA's core research will build on the pioneering work of the Landscape Sciences Program Landscape Ecology Branch (LEB) and Landscape Characterization Branch (LCB) within the Environmental Sciences Division (ESD) of NERL. Administrative support for ReVA is provided by ESD and ReVA staff in Research Triangle Park are part of the LCB; this task describes the research, information management activities and spatial analysis support that are the primary responsibility of individuals within this branch in support of the broader ReVA research program.

ReVA work within LCB is presented as two subtasks:

Information Management of Spatial Data; and

ReVA Program Management, Tech Transfer, and Outreach.

While these projects are diverse in nature, they are all crucial to the success of ReVA and their results, along with the results of other research projects within EPA ORD and external to EPA, will be integrated in the assessments. A more complete description of the entire ReVA program can be found in the ReVA Program Overview and on the ReVA website, located at www.epa.gov/reva.

Record Details:

Record Type:PROJECT
Start Date:10/01/2000
Projected Completion Date:10/01/2008
OMB Category:Other
Record ID: 15999