
I am pleased to announce that a new Request for
Assistance (RFA) has been issued by EPA/ORD on the
topic of "Integrated Assessment of the Positive and
Negative Consequences on the United States of Climate
Change and Climate Variability." This solicitation is being
made by ORD's STAR Grant Program in support of the
ORD Global Change Research Program. The objective of
this solicitation is to conduct a series of integrated
assessments of the potential consequences of climate
variability and change on small geographic locations (i.e., a
sub-regional level) within the United States. We also
expect that the assessment funded under this RFA will
integrate across impact categories, sectors and systems
such as human health, air quality, water resources (both
quantity and quality), ecosystems, wildlife and biodiversity,
agriculture and aquaculture, forests and vegetation, coastal
zones, tourism and recreation, social systems, and
economic systems.

I would greatly appreciate your circulating this
announcement (attached below) to the USGCRP network
of researchers and federal agencies. Additional information
about the solicitation can be found at the EPA website:
www.epa.gov/ncerqa.

Thank you for your assistance.

Best regards,
Joel
------------------------------------------
1. INTEGRATED ASSESSMENT OF THE POSITIVE
AND NEGATIVE
CONSEQUENCES ON THE UNITED STATES OF
CLIMATE CHANGE AND
CLIMATE VARIABILITY

BACKGROUND: A major responsibility of the U.S.
Global Change Research Program
(USGCRP) is to quantify the potential consequences of
climate change and climate variability for
human health, natural ecosystems, and economic activity.
Both positive and negative
consequences need to be identified. The enabling
legislation of the Global Climate Research Act
of 1990 mandates that the USGCRP ". . . prepare and
submit to the President of the United
States an assessment which--

     (1) integrates, evaluates, and interprets the findings of
the Program and discusses the
     scientific uncertainties associated with such findings;
     (2) analyzes the effects of global change on the natural
environment, agriculture, energy
     production and use, land and water resources,
transportation, human health and welfare,
     human social systems, and biodiversity; and
     (3) analyzes current trends in global change, both
human-induced and natural, and
     projects major trends for the subsequent 25 to 100
years."

     To fulfill this mandate, the USGCRP is conducting the
first National Assessment of the
"Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and
Change on the United States" that will
deliver a report to Congress in January 2000. The
assessment will contain a National Synthesis
Report, 19 Regional Assessments, an assessment of the
potential consequences of climate
variability and change for Native Americans, and five
Sectoral Studies focusing on human health,
coastal zones, water resources, agriculture and forests (see
http://www.USGCRP.gov). This
assessment process will be periodically repeated as new
scientific information becomes
available.

In addition to supporting the National Assessment
Process, the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) supports research to develop and
implement methodologies for the integrated
assessment of the potential consequences of climate
variability and change on human health,
ecosystems, and economic systems. A first set of
regional-scale integrated assessments was
funded by EPA's STAR Program in Fiscal Year 1996 (FY
96). Five competitive research
grants were funded. These assessments were
sector/system specific (e.g., water resources,
agriculture, public health, etc.) and integrated "vertically"
from climate scenarios/models to
hydrologic models, ecosystem models, and other
physical/biological models, as appropriate, and
then finally to economic models.

The purpose of this new solicitation by the EPA is to
continue support of research that further
advances the development of approaches for conducting
integrated assessments of the potential
consequences of climate variability and change on the
United States. The intent of this second
solicitation is to encourage assessments that integrate
"horizontally" as well as vertically; i.e.,
assessments that assess the consequences of climate
variability and change across
sectors/systems. Also, it is intended that these assessments
focus on a finer geographic scale
than the first-round of FY 96 STAR grants.

DESCRIPTION: Integrated assessments are studies
which investigate individual components
of a larger system (e.g., changes in regional climate;
changes in the hydrologic cycle; physical
and biological effects; economic impacts) and then show
how changes in the individual
components interact and affect other parts of the system.
The objective of this solicitation is to
conduct a series of integrated assessments of the potential
consequences of climate variability
and change on small geographic locations (i.e., a
sub-regional level) within the United States.
They should identify and illuminate climate change impacts
that are best assessed at fine
geographic scales and that are of potentially significant
environmental, social, and/or economic
importance. (These assessments are not intended to
duplicate the regional assessments that are
currently being conducted as part of the first USGCRP
National Assessment Process.)

These assessments must integrate both "horizontally"
across sectors and "vertically" from the
climate system through to socioeconomic impacts. By
integrating horizontally, these assessments
should begin to identify and illuminate climate change
impacts which when considered jointly are
likely to identify important interactions that would alter
conclusions about the vulnerability of a
locality or resource to climate change. The assessments
should integrate across impact
categories, sectors and systems such as human health, air
quality, water resources (both quantity
and quality), ecosystems, wildlife and biodiversity,
agriculture and aquaculture, forests and
vegetation, coastal zones, tourism and recreation, social
systems, and economic systems. For
example, a proposed assessment might examine the
potential consequences of climate variability
and change on the San Francisco Bay area. Such an
assessment might integrate "horizontally" to
capture the potential impacts on coastal areas (due to sea
level rise), human health, urban air
quality, urban drinking water supplies, agriculture,
wetlands, freshwater fisheries and recreational
fishing, and hydropower. It would not be sufficient to link
changes in climate to changes in
forests and human uses for the forests, such as local
opportunities for viewing selected bird
species; it would also be necessary to extend the
assessment to integrate the effects of other
sectors/systems, such as water resources, agriculture, and
the local economy.
This assessment would also integrate "vertically" from
climate scenarios/models to hydrologic
models, ecosystem models, and other physical/biological
models, as appropriate, and then finally
to economic models. It is not sufficient to provide an
assessment of the potential physical
changes in the environment that might result from climate
variability and change; it is also
necessary to assess the potential consequences for human
uses of the environment and for
society.

Whereas the previous 1996 Request for Applications
(RFA) focused on regions such as the
southeastern U.S. or the corn belt, the geographic areas
that might be considered for this RFA
include large or small cities, such as Miami, FL, Des
Moines, IA or Raleigh, NC; National Parks
such as the Everglades, Rocky Mountain or Olympia;
coastal areas such as Waquoit Bay,
Mobile Bay or Gray's Harbor; small river basins such as
Big Darby Creek, OH; or native and
tribal lands. For the purposes of this RFA, we are not
requesting proposals for large geographic
areas, such as the mid-Atlantic region or the Mississippi
watershed.

In addition, the assessments should be structured so that
they address the following questions
(also being addressed in the USGCRP National
Assessment Process):

*What are the current conditions of resources,
environmental/socioeconomic stresses, and
issues of concern for the geographic area under
investigation?

*How might climate variability and change exacerbate or
ameliorate these conditions?

*What coping options exist that can build resilience to
current environmental stresses, and also
possibly lessen the impacts of climate variability and
change (or take advantage of new
opportunities presented by climate variability and change)?

*What are the priority research and information needs that
can better prepare policy makers to
reach wise decisions related to climate variability and
change?
*What research is most important to complete over the
short term? Over the long term?

ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS: The Principal
Investigator must partner with a local
stakeholder group that has particular interest in the
outcome of the assessment. For example, this
might be a Mayor's Office in a small municipality, a river
commission within a watershed, or a
non-governmental organization (NGO). A letter of support
and cooperation from the partner for
the assessment must accompany the application. In
addition, an effective strategy for
communicating the results of the assessment (the positive
and negative consequences of climate
change and variability across sectors) to affected
stakeholders, and the public at large, must be
included. The latter is not to exceed two pages and must
be included within the 15 pages of
allowable text for the proposal.


Funding: Up to $6 million is expected to be available in
fiscal year 1999 for awards in this
program. A proposal may request up to $300,000 per
year for up to 3 years, and may not
exceed these funding levels or time.

