Document ID: EPA-HQ-OW-2003-0074-0279
Agency: epa
Document Type: Supporting & Related Material
Title: 
Posted Date: 2003-12-24T05:00Z

Regional
Vulnerability
Assessment
(
ReVA)
Program
March
3,
2003
EPA's
Regional
Vulnerability
Assessment
(
ReVA)
program
is
an
approach
to
regional
scale,
priority­
setting
assessment
being
developed
by
EPA's
Office
of
Research
and
Development
(
ORD).
ReVA
is
a
tool
for
integrating
research
on
human
and
environmental
health,
ecorestoration,
landscape
analysis,
regional
exposure
and
process
modeling,
problem
formulation,
and
ecological
risk
guidelines.

Purpose:
This
program
is
part
of
the
Integrated
Science
for
Ecosystem
Challenges
Initiative
for
FY
2000
sponsored
by
the
White
House
Committee
on
the
Environment
and
Natural
Resources
(
CENR).
As
such,
the
scope
of
ReVA
is
to
conduct
pilot
assessments
that
focus
on
one
geographic
region
that
is
well
characterized
biologically.
The
ReVA
program
will
be
responsible
for
the
collection,
management,
and
analysis
of
multiple
data
sources
to
evaluate
environmental
conditions
and
known
stressors
within
the
Mid­
Atlantic
region.
Extensive
effort
has
been
made
to
evaluate
environmental
condition
and
known
stressors
within
the
Mid­
Atlantic
region,
but
predicting
future
environmental
risk
to
prioritize
efforts
to
protect
and
restore
environmental
quality
efficiently
and
effectively
is
still
difficult.
ReVA
is
being
developed
to
identify
those
ecosystems
most
vulnerable
to
being
lost
or
permanently
harmed
in
the
next
5
to
25
years
and
to
determine
which
stressors
are
likely
to
cause
the
greatest
risk.
The
goal
of
ReVA
is
not
exact
predictions,
but
identification
of
the
undesirable
environmental
changes
expected
over
the
coming
years.
The
ReVA
program
will
extend
environmental
assessments
for
the
region
by
using
integrative
technologies
to
predict
future
environmental
risk
and
support
informed,
proactive
decision­
making
and
prioritization
of
issues
for
risk
management.

ReVA
is
possibly
feasible
for
ecological
risk
evaluation.
However,
a
few
notes
of
caution
are
warranted.
ORD
is
continuing
to
quantify
uncertainties;
thus
its,
ultimate
effectiveness
and
predictive
capabilities
for
OW
in
the
near
term
need
more
vetting.
Furthermore,
ORD
has
not
done
any
analyses,
to
date,
at
a
national
scale,
and
the
validity
of
applying
this
approach
to
the
planning
process
will
depend
on
the
quality
of
data
inputs.

Contact:
Betsy
Smith
(
919)
541­
0620
Short­
term
Followup:
Meet
with
ReVA
staff
to
determine
the
progress
to
date
in
identifying
ecosystems
most
vulnerable
to
being
lost
or
permanently
harmed
in
the
next
5
to
25
years,
and
the
stressors
are
likely
to
cause
the
greatest
risk.
With
the
assistance
of
ReVA
staff,
this
information
could
be
used
at
the
screening
level
tool
for
identifying
national­
level
concerns
or
trends
in
human
health
and
the
environment.

Long­
term
Followup:
Discuss
with
ReVA
staff
the
possibility
of
using
this
approach
for
in­
depth
evaluation
of
the
stressors
identified
in
the
short­
term
(
and
their
possible
sources)
to
support
the
more
detailed
investigation
phase
of
the
304(
m)
planning
process.