PARENT SESSION
Special Session - Landscape Ecology at the US EPA: methodologies and applications - Morning Session Chair(s): Fernandez, Luis¹, ¹ US Environmental Protection Agency, Dallas, TX
Friday, April 2, 2004 9:00 AM - 10:20 AM Apollo Room 5

The mission of the US Environmental Protection Agency includes the protection of ecosystems and human populations at regional scales. Key principles of landscape ecology have proven to be crucial for the development of new methodologies that shift from a traditional site-specific focus to a regional and landscape scale for environmental protection. This session will present work being done by EPA scientists who have incorporate these key principles into programs of investigation and action designed to protect the natural and human environment.

Texas Ecological Assessment Protocol (TEAP) Model: An Ecoregion-Scale Landscape. OSOWSKI, SHARON L. ¹, ^*FERNANDEZ, LUIS E. ¹, LUECKENHOFF, DOMINIQUE ¹, PARRISH, DAVID A. ¹, DANIELSON, JEFF E. ², LUDEKE, A. K. ³, SCHWELLING, STEVEN ³ and GERMAN, D. ³, ¹ US Environmental Protection Agency, Dallas, TX, USA² Lockheed Martin Corporation, Dallas, TX, USA³ Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Austin , TX, USA

ABSTRACT- The Texas Environmental Resource Stewards (TERS) technical team, a group comprised of scientists from 7 federal and state agencies, was chartered with developing a protocol that would use existing high quality spatial data to determine ecologically sensitive areas in the state of Texas to aid in environmental protection and large-scale transportation project planning. Several transportation and communication projects are in the planning stages(e.g. Interstate 69, Trans-Texas corridor), and there is clear need to identify and protect areas of high ecological sensitivity and value from disturbance. Using an existing ecosystem assessment model as a basis (EPA Region 5 CrEAM model), the TERS team developed the Texas Ecological Assessment Protocol (TEAP)model. Due to the large land area and high variability of ecosystems in Texas, an ecoregion scale analysis was determined as the best approach to ensure that identification of high ecologically valuable and sensitive areas throughout the state. The final state ecological assessment map was a mosaic of ecoregional assessments, each being a weighted composite of 3 derived spatial layers: 1)diversity, 2) rarity and 3) sustainability. Each of these layers was, in turn, a composite calculated from published and widely available spatial data sets (diversity: 4 layers, rarity: 4 layers; sustainability: 11 layers). The TEAP model was not designed to be an exhaustive determination of ecosystem sensitivity, but rather a relatively rapid, cost effective, and ecologically grounded and sound regional landscape assessment tool, which highlighted sensitive ecosystems that required protection and should be avoided in transportation project planning. This presentation will provide an overview of the TEAP model, and present results of our analyses, and conclude with potential applications of the model in future planning projects.

KEY WORDS: ecologically sensitive area, spatial data, ecosystem assessment tool. geographic information systems