INTRODUCTORY SESSION

(Summary prepared by Tao Zhu and Kerri Dane)

Speakers:   Ann Fisher, Penn State
                    Joel Scheraga, US EPA--National Assessment Working Group
                    Mike Slimak, US EPA--National Center for Environmental Assessment

One meeting objective is to identify information that can be used in the Mid-Atlantic Regional Assessment (MARA), including data bases, approaches that might be appropriate, existing assessments, and expertise. The second objective is to get feedback on the planned assessment approach, priority issues, and remaining gaps that should be addressed.

The Mid-Atlantic region includes all or parts of eight states (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina.

There are four basic questions to be addressed by the assessment:

• What are the region’s current stresses and issues?
• How would climate change affect these stresses and issues?
• What kinds of research and information are needed to make wise decisions?
• What coping options can be used to respond to negative impacts?  To positive opportunities?

A starting point for MARA is lessons learned from the September 1997 workshop (www.essc.psu.edu/ccimar), which focused on climate impacts for the Chesapeake Bay and Delaware River Basin. These lessons include:

• Stakeholders are hard to engage
• Education and information dissemination are crucial
• Health impacts are of concern
• Need to know more about changes in climate variability
• Need smaller scale information on the rate and magnitude of climate change
• Water is especially important
• There appears to be a lack of good information on the region’s ecosystems
• Need to link climate variability to sectors
• Need to identify a baseline

The process for this assessment will be open; it depends on stakeholder involvement and researcher interaction. Keep in mind that this is an initial assessment, expected to be a part of a continuing series.

The assessment will be conducted within the framework developed by Penn State's Center for Integrated Regional Assessment (CIRA). The project team is organized into sector groups (forest, agriculture, health, water, and coastal zones) and cross cutting groups (climate change and variability, stakeholder involvement, biophysical input, ecological impacts and human input).

The National Assessment of Climate Change Impacts, which is due to Congress by the end of 1999, will be built on 19 regional assessments and 5 sectoral assessments. The Mid-Atlantic Region is one of the regions for which assessments will be prepared. This is the first researchers' meeting among the 19 regions. Communication among researchers in different regions is important. The federal government is "doing business differently" in this assessment process. The work will be guided by both the research community and the clients (decision-makers) for whom the information is being produced. Stakeholder communication and outreach have a major role in this public-private partnership. MARA is being viewed as the flagship assessment.

EPA has several programs with information about the Mid-Atlantic region. Many of these programs have participation from other federal agencies. Establishing linkages, such as how ecosystems will be affected by climate change and climate variability, will be a challenge--even with the wealth of ecosystem information available for this region. Understanding these linkages ultimately may be a basis for deciding how much to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.