title: An overview of data integration methods for regional assessment.
abstract: The U.S. Environmental Protections Agency's (U.S. EPA) Regional Vulnerability Assessment(ReVA) program has focused much of its research over the last five years on developing and evaluating integration methods for spatial data. An initial strategic priority was to use existing data from monitoring programs, model results, and other spatial data. Because most of these data were not collected with an intention of integrating into a regional assessment of conditions and vulnerabilities, issues exist that may preclude the use of some methods or require some sort of data preparation. Additionally, to support multi-criteria decision-making, methods need to be able to address a series of assessment questions that provide insights into where environmental risks are a priority. This paper provides an overview of twelve spatial integration methods that can be applied towards regional assessment, along with preliminary results as to how sensitive each method is to data issues that will likely be encountered with the use of existing data.
authors.affiliation: Waratah Corporation, 2505 Meridian Pkwy, Suite 175, Durham, NC 27713, USA.
authors.forename: Nicholas W
authors.initials: NW
authors.lastname: Locantore
authors.forename: Liem T
authors.initials: LT
authors.lastname: Tran
authors.forename: Robert V
authors.initials: RV
authors.lastname: O'Neill
authors.forename: Peter W
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: McKinnis
authors.forename: Elizabeth R
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: O'Connell
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D003657:Decision Making; D004777:Environment; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000506:poisoning; D006801:Humans; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014481:United States; D014484:United States Environmental Protection Agency
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants