Impact/Purpose:

GENERIC RARE OBJECTIVE: The Regional Applied Research Effort (RARE) provides the Regions with a mechanism to address near term research needs through an ORD Laboratory/Center. Any applied research project that a Region identifies and that an ORD laboratory has the expertise to carry out will be considered if the three following conditions are met: 1) projects must be funded through an ORD Laboratory or Center, 2) the project must fall within with defined mission of the selected ORD Laboratory/Center, and 3) proposals must be research-oriented.

Description:

This proposal pertains to the on-going development of the Data Collection Manager (DCM) module, which is one of three modules that compose MIRA, Multi-criteria Integrated Resource Assessment. MIRA is Region III's newly conceived and continually developing decision support approach that brings diverse perspectives and interests together in order to achieve holistic environmental decision making. Through this funding proposal, we seek to develop the functionality of the DCM and its linkage to the other 2 modules of MIRA.

MIRA with the DCM and the other component module, the Geostatistical Indicators Module (GIM), were developed in response to the Government Results and Performance Act (GPRA), which requires all federal agencies to develop 5-year strategic plans that reflect accountability and measurable outcomes. GPRA seeks to improve federal effectiveness and public accountability by promoting the focus on results, service quality and customer satisfaction. MIRA has been specifically designed to address regional environmental problems; although it has clear potential to apply to other regions and to the making of national EPA policy. Region III is in a strategic position to address cross-state and regional scale problems like ground level ozone, acid deposition, fine particulates, and the Chesapeake Bay. In its current form, indicators for ground level ozone and fine particulate matter are being developed within MIRA; although future plans include broadening its functionality to other pollutants and multi-media problems.

The DCM provides EPA analysts with the ability to collect data within a particular decision making context, organize it, warehouse it, and retrieve it based on analyst needs. The DCM provides the analyst the ability to prepare the data for further analysis in the other two modules of MIRA: the Geostatistical Indicators Module (GIM) and the Decision Analysis module. For example, emissions inventories are currently primarily manually prepared for input into air quality models. When EPA is interested in determining the effect of the implementation of particular emission control requirements, emissions inventories must be manually manipulated (i.e. emissions reductions applied on a source by source or category by category basis) and then prepared in the appropriate format for the air quality model. The DCM would automatically apply emission control requirements and format emissions inventories for the air quality model.

While MIRA is expert-based, incorporating the latest methods and concepts of atmospheric scientists, ecologists, economists, statisticians and sociologists, its innovative, interactive approach facilitates stakeholder discussions by allowing all participants to see how their interests are considered. Potential decision solutions are generated and tested in the context of multiple problems, data, and theories. Resolution of issues is facilitated with a method that makes decision making transparent at all levels from the data used to the criteria included and the analytical procedures performed. Perhaps most importantly, MIRA facilitates decision making through improved understanding of the scientific data and the generation and testing of decision options, some of which may not otherwise have been recognized by decision makers and stakeholders. MIRA is not a substitute for the decision maker. Instead, MIRA offers the decision maker an assessment tool that facilitates discussion, allows for the comparison of the impacts between two or more options, and empowers decision makers and stakeholders to create and test a variety of decision options.

Region III has been working with ORD's Regional Vulnerability Assessment Program (REVA) to utilize the data collected under the MAIA/REVA programs in development of alternative scenarios to assist regional management in environmental decision making.

Record Details: