Środowisko i energia · 31.08.2010

A Method to Assess Climate-Relevant Decisions: Application in the Chesapeake Bay

The EPA is announcing a 60-day public comment period for the draft document titled, "A Method to Assess Climate-Relevant Decision: Application in the Chesapeake Bay" (EPA/600/R-10/096a). The draft document was prepared by the National Center for Environmental Assessment (NCEA) within EPA's Office of Research and Development. In the 2010 Executive Order (EO) Strategy entitled, Protecting and Restoring the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, EPA has committed to "minimize the vulnerability of the Chesapeake Bay watershed to adverse impacts from climate change." The EO Strategy also commits EPA to ensuring that "TMDL allocations account for climate change impacts [by working] in conjunction with the states to conduct an analysis by 2017 to consider accounting for uncertainties of climate change in TMDL allocations." To accomplish this, it is necessary to understand the rates at which conditions are changing and are projected to change in the future; how various factors, such as land-use changes, interact with climate change impacts; and the likely consequences for water quality, habitats, fish and wildlife and communities. This draft report presents a systematic approach for evaluating these fa