Review of EPA's Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program Overall Evaluation (1995) / Chapter Skim
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2 Overall Assessment
2 Overall Assessment
Pages 18-45
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From page 18... ...
They concern the design and implementation of monitoring; the sampling protocols; the development of indicators; integration among various parts of the program; program coordination within EMAP, within EPA, and within the federal government; and external scientific review. THE EMAP ASSESSMENT FRAMEWORK Most ecological monitoring programs are driven by some explicit or implicit set of assessment questions.
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From page 19... ...
As such, it is the fundamental statement of the philosophical and practical requirements of EMAP's data-gathering activities. This is an especially critical element in the EMAP program development because in recent years EPA has been actively promoting ecological risk assessment (NRC, ~ 993b, RAF, ~ 992)
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From page 20... ...
The Assessment Framework describes both approaches in some detail and refers to them as being complementary, arguing that retrospective analysis will "become increasingly important as assessments of larger scale problems are conducted because it will become increasingly difficult to establish specific cause-effect relationships..." Because the whole of the EMAP monitoring strategy is based on retrospective analysis, EMAP needs to present a more rigorous exposition of its rationale for this strategic choice. It is not clear that the
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From page 21... ...
In considering the value of EMAP as a national monitoring program, it is important to understand what kinds of ecological risk EMAP is likely to provide useful data on, and what kinds of risks will require more traditional predictive, or stressorbased, analyses. The Assessment Framework's assertion that spatial and temporal scales are the major variables determining whether or not EMAP can provide useful assessment data may not be correct.
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From page 22... ...
large mitigation lag acute toxic contamination inappropriate high severity exotic species effects inappropriate large mitigation lag global warming inappropriate high severity, large mitigation lag regional nuclear inappropriate high severity contamination ozone depletion inappropriate high severity, large mitigation lag biological extinctions inappropriate poor detection, infinite mitigation lag
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From page 23... ...
The EMAP approach is no panacea, and it is important that claims by the program and expectations of the public be realistic. In general, when the probability of detecting an effect is high and the cost of failing to detect is not extremely large, EMAP's effects-based monitoring can provide useful input to the Ecological Risk Assessment process as indicated in the Assessment Framework document (Thornton et al., ~ 994~.
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From page 24... ...
By focusing on indicators that are sensitive to the most likely known stressors for each resource group, an increase in the probability of detecting meaningful ecological changes may be achievable within any given sampling program. There remain issues of the EMAP design and assessment approach that have not been adequately addressed such as: the ability to detect changes at an appropriate scale, whether the sampling return period is adequate to detect cyclical events, and the efficacy of specific "stressor cognitive" indicators.
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From page 25... ...
This attribute is especially important for a monitoring program in which resource units are sampled at most once per year. In addition, advances in the development of multispecies biological indices using multivariate statistical methods offer some hope of defining and quantifying certain aspects of ecosystem status, and perhaps will allow useful quantification of the still nebulous concept of appropriate biological diversity, and the even more indeterminate concepts of ecological health and biological integrity.
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From page 26... ...
To date, EMAP has not developed such an aggressive and comprehensive research program for development of biological indicators, and this is perhaps the most important research need facing EMAP. Given the scope of the problem, EMAP should initiate a major, focused research program on indicator development.
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From page 27... ...
The research program should be directed not only at development of biological indicators appropriate for the various resource groups but also at applying new advances to develop new measures of ecosystem function as well as ecosystem structure. EMAP SAMPLING DENSITY AND SAMPLING FREQUENCY EMAP has developed a probability-based sampling design to address certain questions regarding the status and trends of ecofogical resource populations of interest in the United States.
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From page 28... ...
For instance, the selection of indicators of biological condition for the various resource groups may be driven more by what can be detected in four years' time than by their ecological relevance. Regarding the issues of detection of temporal or spatial processes outside the current EMAP sampling frameworks, EMAP claims that other federal programs (e.g., LTER, LMER} and state and regional programs including the Regional Environmental Monitoring Assessment Program (REMAP)
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From page 29... ...
For example, it is not evident how stream sampling will be coordinated with the sampling of surrounding forest, or if the Forest Health Monitoring program is following the EMAP grid. With respect to agroecosystems, the North Carolina pilot study compared the sampling design of the National Agricultural Statistical Survey (NASS, a welI-established program)
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From page 30... ...
With increased numbers of samples, the level of confidence will not change, but the width of the confidence bands will become smaller. The power analyses that the committee has seen thus far deal with changes in the mean, and future power analysis research assessing the effectiveness of EMAP designs should pay attention to more extreme quartiles, like the 1 0th or 90th percentiles.
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From page 31... ...
Nonparametric multivariate techniques to ascertain differences among groups of data points and to detect trends in multivariate data also exist (e.g., Zimmerman et al., 1985; Saila, 1993~. In response to a recommendation from this committee that nonlinear types of trends be investigated (including threshold effects and step functions)
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From page 32... ...
EMAP intends to use Standard Federal Regions (SFRs) as the primary scale for summarizing data and inferring the status and trends of the nation's ecological resources.
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From page 33... ...
In contrast, there are a number of serious ecological disadvantages and additional administrative difficulties in summarizing data by SFRs. First, these regions do not correspond to scales of relevant ecological processes.
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From page 34... ...
Broad generatizations such as findings 2 and 3 above are misleading, and by presenting easy targets for criticism, they will make it more difficult for EMAP to reach its objectives. The fourth finding is also problematic because optimal sapling density depends on species composition of specific stands, the ratio of ingrowth from seedling to sapling classes, mortality over all size classes, and the management objectives to be realized over a given planning horizon.
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From page 35... ...
INTEGRATION Need for Integration As the first national-scale, multiresource monitoring program, EMAP represents a potentially significant addition to the myriad environmental monitoring programs run by other agencies. Two aspects of EMAP make it unique: the probability-based sampling design, and the inclusion of all of the biomes in the coterminous United States.
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From page 36... ...
The fact that EMAP has or is developing a central sampling design, indicator development strategy, and information management system also suggests that EMAP is planning for future integration. Additionally, the presence of EMAP Center as a central administration provides support for integration.
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From page 37... ...
also were being sampled. A stratified random system such as this 'One committee member has been cieep/y concerned about the apparent lack of communication between senior administrators and possibly senior scientists, in the Air and Deposition Section of EMAP and those In major federa/, state, and internationa/ agencies {e.g., Canac/a anc/ Mexico} who are a/so heavily involved in eco/ogica/ risk assessments and environments/ protection.
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From page 38... ...
The team would either have one physical focation or would be coordinated among resource groups by a central office. Key members of this group would include participants of the Landscape Characterization, Landscape Ecology, and Indicator Development groups.
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From page 39... ...
The combination of geographic separation and administrative autonomy makes internal coordination difficult at best. The committee recommends that EPA consider the advantages of assigning all EMAP administrative personnel to a common location.
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From page 40... ...
EPA should commit the senior-level positions required to assure continuity within the management of this important program and recruit qualified people to fill them. Coordination between EMAP and other parts of EPA Through its REMAP program, EMAP has demonstrated excellent coordination with its regional offices.
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From page 41... ...
All parts of EMAP have brought in external reviewers at various stages of planning and implementation. For example, the indicator development program held extensive workshops of EPA contractors and independent scientists to come up with ideas about possible indicators.
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From page 42... ...
Permanent or long-term scientific review panels for each of the eight resource groups were a part of the EMAP plan, but have not yet been set up. In addition to the need for good external review of these various resource groups and funding initiatives, there is also a need for overview of the entire program that is not filled by reviews of each separate part.
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From page 43... ...
This may lead to a higher rate of denial of access to private lands. In addition, the need for short-term information for regulation might compromise the ability of the agency to commit resources to fong-term monitoring programs.
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From page 44... ...
EPA scientists conceived the concept of EMAP and were successful in initiating and implementing its predecessor, the National Surface Waters Survey. Certainly, EPA will have some regulatory responsibility in enforcing policy derived from EMAP data, and lines of communication between monitoring and regulatory personnel should be strong within a single agency.
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From page 45... ...
Overa// Assessment 45 strengthen the program overall and lead to an enhanced scientific reputation.
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