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Panel Discussion: U.S. EPA Using Modeling and Ecosystem Services to Enhance Coastal Decision Making
Citation:
MANGIS, D. R., M. J. RUSSELL, E. R. SMITH, AND L. Wainger. Panel Discussion: U.S. EPA Using Modeling and Ecosystem Services to Enhance Coastal Decision Making. In Proceedings, Proceedings of Coastal Society Meeting, Wilmington, NC, June 13 - 16, 2010. Center for Coastal Fisheries and Habitat Research, Washington, DC, 0 - 0, (2011).
Impact/Purpose:
Today there are increased threats to coastal ecosystems, and more land managers are starting to use ecosystem based management (e.g. NOAA and FWS) to manage their coastal resources. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Research and Development (ORD) has focused its ecological research on ecosystem services in the Ecosystem Services Research Program (ESRP): The goal of the ESRP is to transform the way we understand and respond to environmental issues by making clear the ways in which our choices affect the type, quality and magnitude of the services we receive from ecosystems – such as clean air, clean water, productive soils and generation of food and fiber. Most current coastal decisions that target specific endpoints or indicators rely on regulatory or planning mechanisms for implementation. Ecosystem service endpoints are subtly different from, but complementary to, measurements and metrics currently used by environmental regulatory agencies and natural resource managers. Ecosystem services provide the bridge from biophysical measures, which are fairly esoteric to the lay public, to units of measure that the public can relate to and perceive value in. Ecosystem services thus serve as a valuable mechanism for relaying the benefits of proposed regulatory mandates to the general public they seek to protect. They are also complementary to regulation in that they provide the needed information to bring social and economic mechanisms to bear on the problem.
Description:
This panel will discuss the research being conducted, and the models being used in three current coastal EPA studies being conducted on ecosystem services in Tampa Bay, the Chesapeake Bay and the Coastal Carolinas. These studies are intended to provide a broader and more comprehensive approach to policy and decision-making affecting coastal ecosystems as well as provide an account of valued services that have heretofore been largely unrecognized. Interim research products, including updated and integrated spatial data, models and model frameworks, and interactive decision support systems will be demonstrated to engage potential users and to elicit feedback. It is anticipated that the near-term impact of the projects will be to increase the awareness by coastal communities and coastal managers of the implications of their actions and to foster partnerships for ecosystem services research and applications.