An Overview of U.S. EPA Research, Data, and Tools to Support National Monitoring and Management of Aquatic Ecosystems

On September 2, I will be giving a seminar in the Portuguese language titled “An Overview of U.S. EPA Research, Data, and Tools to Support National Monitoring and Management of Aquatic Ecosystems”. It will discuss the creation of the EPA, passage of the Clean Water Act, and work since then to assess the condition of U.S. waters with special focus on the National Aquatic Resource Surveys. The talk also highlights historical and ongoing collaborations between EPA and Brazilian scientists that apply NARS methodologies to assess Brazilian aquatic resources. Finally, the presentation will showcase the diverse set of research, tools, and datasets that are available from EPA, including NARS data and manuals, StreamCat/LakeCat, and the spmodel statistical package for spatial statistics and modeling.

Impact/Purpose

A long history of collaboration has existed between scientists working with the National Aquatic Resource Surveys and scientists in Brazil, with at least 24 publications since 2010. In addition, Brazil makes extensive use of EPA protocols and tools, including those of the National Aquatic Resource Surveys. For example, a recent review by Maués-Silva et al. in 2024 found that EPA protocols had been used to assess almost 900 streams in the Amazon basin since 2015 in 36 publications. This talk, to be given at the Federal University of Pará (Belém, Brazil), will highlight these important collaborations and the relevance of US EPA research, data, and tools to Brazil and efforts there to establish monitoring and assessment programs.

Citation

Hill, R. An Overview of U.S. EPA Research, Data, and Tools to Support National Monitoring and Management of Aquatic Ecosystems. Seminar at Federal University of Pará (Belém, Brazil), Belém, ParÁ, BRAZIL, September 02, 2024.