c/EPA
United States
Environmental
Protection Agency
Office of Research and
Development
Washington, DC 20460
EPA/600/F-96/001
February 1996
CHARACTERIZATION RESEARCH DIVISION
Landscape Analysis and
Assessment - Overview
Background
Goals
Conceptual
Approach
In the past, environmental policy generally
reflected a reactive response to environ-
mental problems (stressors) with manage-
ment efforts focused on short-term, local-
scale problems such as pollutant abatement.
The 1980s witnessed increased interest in
protecting whole ecosystems from chronic
environmental problems, but these were
often partitioned in relation to specific
media, e.g., water, air, or soil pollution.
Currently, environmental management
philosophy is evolving toward examination
of critical environmental problems over
larger spatial scales and assessment of the
cumulative risk resulting from multiple
stressors. Concern over the condition of
communities, watersheds, and ecoregions
has received considerable attention. Each of
these represents a spatial scale in an
embedded hierarchy (see Figure 1). A
landscape research program was initiated in
1992 to develop and test multiscaled
vulnerability assessment approaches.
Through development and application of
landscape assessment approaches, the
landscapes program aims to enhance the
ability of environmental managers and the
public to:
determine the status and trends of
ecological resources at multiple scales;
evaluate how conditions at a community
scale are influenced by broader-scale
landscape patterns and characteristics;
evaluate impacts of multiple stressors on
ecological resources;
evaluate and prioritize the vulnerability
of ecological resources to impairment
due to a range of stressors at multiple
scales;
formulate a variety of landscape planning
options within and among scales to
reduce vulnerability of ecological
resources to impairment, and to enhance
and restore specific ecological resources;
develop products for a variety of
audiences.
The landscapes program uses landscape
ecology, i.e., the study of the distribution
patterns of communities and ecosystems, the
ecological processes that effect those
patterns, and changes in both pattern and
process over time, as its foundation.
Research is focused on the interaction
between landscape patterns and ecological
processes, especially as they affect the
natural flows of water, energy, nutrients, and
biota in the environment. Landscape pattern
metrics related to size, shape, and
connectivity are used as indicators of
ecological processes and stressors. These
indicators are related to conditions in
specific ecological resources through
application of models and empirical studies,
and therefore provide the basis for
assessments of biodiversity (wildlife
habitat), watershed condition (water quality,
quantity, and vulnerability to flooding), and
landscape resilience (ability to sustain
ecological goods and services when
subjected to combinations of anthropogenic
and natural stress).
Region
Watershed Ecosystem Community Population
Figure 1. Landscape Analysis At Many Scale*
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Conceptual
Approach
(Continued)
The latest in available technology relative to
remote sensing, geographic information
systems, and spatial statistics is being used.
Remotely placed scanners, such as the
Landsat satellites, provide data with: (1)
broad temporal frequency, (2) complete
spatial coverage, (3) ease and economy of
acquisition, (4) capability to integrate
measurements of ecosystem condition that
are derived from site and remote sensing
methods, and, (5) an ability to assess
ecological conditions at multiple scales.
Landscape pattern metrics and indicators are
derived from these data by using
commercial and custom-designed spatial
statistics software.
Implementation
The program is proceeding simultaneously
along two lines: (1) a research component to
develop and test landscape indicators and
assessment protocols, and (2) an implemen-
tation component to demonstrate the
application of landscape analysis protocols
to multiple-scale, ecological assessments.
The research and implementation agendas
are being accomplished through regional
studies in the Mid-Atlantic, the Chihuahuan
Desert, the San Pedro River Basin, the
Southern Appalachian, and the Columbia
River Basin regions of the U.S. An overall
research strategy (Landscape Monitoring
and Assessment Research Plan - 1994,
EPA/620/R-94/009, 1994) sets forth a
specific research agenda to resolve key
technical issues, including sampling design,
indicator development, and assessment
protocols. Participants in this
interorganizational program include
scientists from EPA, Tennessee Valley
Authority, Department of Energy Oak Ridge
National Laboratory, Nature Conservancy,
Forest Service, and New Mexico State
University.
Landscape indicators are in various degrees
of development. Some are fully field tested
and ready for immediate use; others are
preliminary concepts developed from the
theoretical basis of landscape ecology. A
number of journal articles have been
published by the landscapes program that
address landscape indicator and assessment
issues.
The landscapes program has developed an
Atlas concept to communicate its analysis
results to a variety of users. A landscape
atlas consists of a set of indicators mapped
across multiple scales. The maps give the
reader an idea of the spatial distribution of
landscape condition relative to specific
environmental values at multiple scales. A
demonstration of this concept, A Landscape
Atlas of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed,
was published in December 1995.
AntIcipated
Contributions
Two major types of contributions should
result from the program: (I) a set of key
scientific findings regarding the application
and interpretation of landscape indicators at
multiple scales, and (2) methods and a
landscape assessment framework to analyze
ecological resources that contribute to multi-
scaled ecological vulnerability and risk
reduction assessments.
The landscape assessment framework and
methodologies should provide a number of
benefits to environmental managers and the
public:
An understanding of how conditions at
a community level are influenced and
constrained by broader-scale conditions
of watersheds and ecoregions.
An ability to address a range of
environmental problems that have
inherently different scales.
An ability to address cumulative
impacts to ecological resources.
A framework for regional vulnerability
assessments.
An ability to communicate analysis and
assessment results to a wide range of
audiences.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION please contact: National Exposure Research Laboratory
Characterization Research Division, Las Vegas, Monitoring Sciences Branch at (702) 798-2183
or by FAX at (702) 798-2208.
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