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INTEGRATED ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT OF THE MID-ATLANTIC REGION WITH ANALYTICAL NETWORK PROCESS
Citation:
Tran, L. T., C. G. Knight, R. V. O'Neill, AND E R. Smith. INTEGRATED ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT OF THE MID-ATLANTIC REGION WITH ANALYTICAL NETWORK PROCESS. ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING AND ASSESSMENT 94(1-3):263-277, (2004).
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:
A decision analysis method for integrating environmental indicators was developed. This was a combination of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and the Analytic Network Process (ANP). Being able to take into account interdependency among variables, the method was capable of ranking ecosystems in terms or environmental conditions and suggesting cumulative impacts across a large region. Using data on land-cover, population, roads, streams, air pollution, and topography of the Mid-Atlantic region, we were able to point out areas which were in relatively poor condition and/or vulnerable to future deterioration regarding various environmental aspects. The method offered an easy and comprehensive way to combine the strengths of conventional multivariate statistics (PCA) and decision-making science tool (ANP) for integrated environmental assessment. Furthermore, the suggested method can serve a building block for the evaluation of environmental policies