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PA EPA RELEASES LANDSCAPE ATLAS ON THE ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS ON WATERSHEDS
Release Date: 04/24/98
Contact Information:
FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, APRIL 24, 1998
EPA RELEASES LANDSCAPE ATLAS ON THE ENVIRONMENTAL
EFFECTS ON WATERSHEDS
EFFECTS ON WATERSHEDS
EPA is announcing the availability of a new report entitled “An Ecological Assessment of the United States Mid-Atlantic Region: A Landscape Atlas.” The atlas presents an ecological snapshot of the mid-Atlantic to help readers visualize and understand how environmental conditions in their area compare with those elsewhere in the region. The atlas is the latest in a series of information tools developed by EPA that can be used by the public in community-based efforts to protect the environment. The atlas ranks 125 watersheds across the mid-Atlantic based on a variety of indicators related to land cover and land use, such as the amount and patterns of forested land and population density. The region covered by the atlas encompasses Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia. To prepare the atlas, EPA employed newly-available satellite imagery that allowed landscapes to be described at a degree of resolution that has never before been achieved for such a large area. EPA analyzed satellite imagery and other data using innovative scientific techniques from the field of landscape ecology to develop the color-coded maps that appear in the report. The report’s major findings include: six watersheds in southern Virginia, ten watersheds concentrated in West Virginia and three watersheds in north-central Pennsylvania have the most desirable (or natural) landscape conditions from an ecological standpoint; and nineteen watersheds, mostly around the major metropolitan areas of Baltimore, Md., Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh, Pa., and Norfolk, Va., have the least desirable (most impacted) landscape conditions. These watersheds are more densely populated and were found to have lower amounts of vegetation along streams, for example mountainous watersheds in the mid-Atlantic region have the least amount of agricultural and urban land cover. Coastal areas have the greatest amount of these types of land cover. The atlas is the product of scientists from EPA’s Office of Research and Development and EPA Region III, other federal agencies including the Tennessee Valley Authority and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and state agencies and universities. It complements other recent EPA reports, such as the “Index of Watershed Indicators,” which focuses on water resources at the watershed level across the entire country. Future research steps will integrate satellite-based information from this report with ground-based environmental monitoring data and extend the approach developed for the atlas to other parts of the country. For copies of the Atlas, call EPA’s Center for Environmental Research Information at 513-569-7562. Electronic copies are available via the Internet at: https://www.epa.gov/emap.
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