An overview of EPA's Regional Vulnerability Assessment (ReVA) Program

Regional Vulnerability Assessment (ReVA) is an approach to place-based ecol ogical risk assessment that is currently under development by EPA's Office of Research and Development. The pilot assessment will be done for the mid- Atlantic region and builds on data collected for the Environmental Monitori ng and Assessment Program. ReVA is being developed to identify those ecosys tems most vulnerable to being lost or degraded in the next 5 to 50 years an d to elucidate which stressors cause the greatest risk to ecosystem goods a nd services. The goal here is not exact predictions, but an early warning s ystem to identify and prioritize the undesirable environmental changes we s hould expect over the next few decades. As such, ReVA represents a new risk paradigm for EPA that will require innovative approaches to combine existi ng knowledge, focus new research, and synthesize many types of information into a meaningful assessment designed to inform environmental decision-make rs about future environmental risk.