Using science to assess environmental vulnerabilities.

Beginning in 1995, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA), Office of Research and Development has focused much of its ecological research in the Mid-Atlantic as part of the Mid-Atlantic Integrated Assessment (MAIA). The goal of MAIA is to improve the assessability of scientific information in environmental decision-making. Following the Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP) whose goal is to guide monitoring that effectively reflects current ecosystem condition and trends, MAIA's second, current, phase of research under the Regional Vulnerability Assessment (ReVA) program is designed to target risk management activities using available data and models. The papers presented here are from a conference held in May 2003 that presented results of research in this second phase of MAIA. The conference was organized into the following topics: 1. Assessing Current Impacts and Vulnerabilities 2. Forecasting Environmental Condition and Vulnerabilities 3. Developing Management Strategies to Optimize the Future, and 4. Assessing and Responding to Environmental Vulnerability.

Innovative environmental education contributes to improved management practices in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States.

The Mid-Atlantic Integrated Assessment (MAIA) and its partner, University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) have developed a graduate-level course focused on successful application of science by decision-makers to address a particular problem. Students conduct a literature review, interview the decision-makers and scientists, and synthesize and document the management problem, the science that was applied to that problem, and other issues that might constrain or drive the solution (e.g., legalities, social pressures, expense, politics, personalities, etc.). Students also quantify the results, evaluate who the intended audience is and how they most appropriately target them, and determine if there are other management problems that could be addressed with the science. The final products are short publications geared towards other decision-makers who might have a similar problem and might be seeking successful innovative solutions. MAIA is distributing these short publications to decision-makers throughout the Mid-Atlantic Region. The publications have been very positively received by state and local governments and watershed groups.

Keeping the books for environmental systems: an emergy analysis of West Virginia.

Emergy provides a general accounting mechanism that allows us to view the economy and the environment on the same income statement and balance sheet. This allows an auditor to verify the economic picture by checking it against a more complete representation of the flows and storages of real wealth as measured by emergy. In this study, we constructed emergy accounts for the state of West Virginia in 1997. The income statement showed annual production, consumption, and flows of emergy and dollars into and out of the state. The balance sheet evaluated the storage of emergy in some of the state's assets. Emergy indices were used to answer questions posed by managers and gain insight into the state's economic and environmental strengths and weaknesses. West Virginia has great wealth in nonrenewable resources (9E14 sej m-2 or 17 times the U.S. average). The investment ratio of emergy purchased outside to indigenous renewable and nonrenewable emergy was 2.2:1, which indicates a high potential for future development. However, the environmental loading ratio (14:1) was already 1.5 times higher than that found at an average location in the U.S. Twice as much emergy was exported as received and standard of living indicators showed that people have largely failed to benefit from their state's wealth. We propose that, just as in business, where decisions made using financial accounts ensure solvency; decisions governing the environment should be made based on an emergy accounting of activities, assets, and liabilities for the combined system of humanity and nature.

Managing troubled data: coastal data partnerships smooth data integration.

Understanding the ecology, condition, and changes of coastal areas requires data from many sources. Broad-scale and long-term ecological questions, such as global climate change, biodiversity, and cumulative impacts of human activities, must be addressed with databases that integrate data from several different research and monitoring programs. Various barriers, including widely differing data formats, codes, directories, systems, and metadata used by individual programs, make such integration troublesome. Coastal data partnerships, by helping overcome technical, social, and organizational barriers, can lead to a better understanding of environmental issues, and may enable better management decisions. Characteristics of successful data partnerships include a common need for shared data, strong collaborative leadership, committed partners willing to invest in the partnership, and clear agreements on data standards and data policy. Emerging data and metadata standards that become widely accepted are crucial. New information technology is making it easier to exchange and integrate data. Data partnerships allow us to create broader databases than would be possible for any one organization to create by itself.