Two
Activities will integrate the components of the project and provide
a framework for evaluating its success:
- Environmental Trend Analysis.
Participating agencies are collaborating on a trend analysis using current monitoring networks to provide a benchmark against which new monitoring technology can be assessed. This will facilitate evaluation of the benefits of better interagency coordination and the benefits from linking process research at intensive sites with observations at regional plot networks.
- Applying Process based Ecosystem
and Land-use Models for the Delaware River Basin Assessment.
The application of process based forest ecosystem models, such as PnET and the Terrestrial Ecosystem Model (TEM) will provide a way to integrate the monitoring research in the Delaware River Basin on issues such as effects of nitrogen deposition and land use changes on water quality, forest productivity and forest health. The objective is to improve on the ability to integrate monitoring information across resources and scales for the purposes of assessing forested watershed conditions and attributing the causes of watershed and environmental changes. The USG GNAW program will use the enhanced database made available by this initiative to develop a model of land-use effects on water quality in the upper Delaware River basin. The SPARROW model provides a statistically valid approach for looking at factors that affect transport of nutrients, and can link process data from small-scale watershed studies with monitoring data from large-scale rivers.
Previous: Issue-Based Studies | Next: Conservation Education | CEMRI Home Page | Site Map
