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Integrating EPA Models and Data in Open Scenario Planning Tools
Citation:
Brookes, A. Integrating EPA Models and Data in Open Scenario Planning Tools. 9th International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software, Ft. Collins, Colorado, June 24 - 28, 2018.
Impact/Purpose:
Urban planners will now be able to use EPA data and models as part of their decision processes when planning changes to their communities. Since the models and data will be integrated into their existing planning tools, adoption and use will be significantly easier, resulting in plans that will be better for human health and the environment.
Description:
Environmental and health modeling results can be beneficial to communities, especially when making decisions about changes in land use, transportation, buildings and infrastructure, and waste. Often communities do not have knowledge of these models, capacity to use them, or even the expertise to use them. Building models into processes that communities are already using alleviates the problems of knowledge, capacity, and expertise. Many communities employ scenario planning tools to model consequences of possible decisions for changing the communities built environment. Some of these tools provide open architectures that allow additional analytic capabilities as part of these scenarios. This talk discusses two modules that can be used by a number of scenario planning tools that incorporate EPA environmental and health models to aid communities in making better planning decisions.