• Regional Vulnerability Assessment (ReVA)
  EPA's Regional Vulnerability Assessment (ReVA) program is an approach to regional scale, priority-setting assessment by integrating research on human and environmental health, ecorestoration, landscape analysis, regional exposure and process modeling, problem formulation, and ecological risk guidelines.



• Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium (MRLC)
  The Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium (MRLC) was formed by several federal agencies as an economical means to acquire satellite images and convert those images into useful products. This site describes the consortium and their projects.



• Landscape Ecology Projects
  Landscape ecology is an interdisciplinary science framework that studies the relationship between spatial patterns of landscape characteristics and conditions of and risks to ecological resources, including forests, rangelands, wetlands, rivers, streams, lakes, and urban environmental settings.

• Characterization and Monitoring
  Use of correct site characterization and monitoring techniques at hazardous waste sites is essential to provide accurate data from which decisions about the site's fate can be made. This research area is focused on improving the accuracy and representativeness of data through better sampling designs, equipment, methods, and through improved statistical data interpretation. Efforts focus on the measurement and evaluation of contaminants in various media, with emphasis on soils, sediments, and ground water.

• Regional Applied Research Effort (RARE)
  A majority of the contaminated sites within the United States contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs). This research effort's goal is to develop a coupled analytical method which uses thermal desorption to extract and accurately measure VOCs and semi-volatile organic compounds from a single high moisture soil or sediment sample using a dual gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer (GC/MS) system.


• Trace Organic Analysis
  Continuous development of techniques and instrumentation play a central role in the chemical measurements that are needed to protect human health and the environment.


• Vacuum Distillation for Identifying Volatile Pollutants
  Vacuum distillation is an EPA-patented technique for analyzing a broad spectrum of environmental sample types for conventional volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) as well as semi-volatile pollutants. This rugged approach has built-in quality assurance and has been adopted as an official method in RCRA's SW-846 Manual of Methods.



• Ion Composition (ICE) for Identifying Uncommon Pollutants
  ICE is an EPA-developed tool that helps analytical chemists identify pollutants not included on EPA target lists. ICE enhances the power of conventional, high resolution mass spectrometry in environmental forensics to reveal sources and types of chemical pollution. Determining compound identities is essential for risk assessments.

Resources:

• Technical Reference Center
  Collections include nuclear science, environmental science, specific areas of research performed at the Las Vegas lab facility, and one-of-a-kind collections such as the National Eutrophication Study.



• Technical Support Center for Monitoring and Site Characterization
  The Technical Support Center offers monitoring and site characterization for Superfund support to EPA's Remedial Project Managers (RPMs) and On-Scene Coordinators (OSCs) throughout a site characterization event, i.e., from planning and design to analysis and data interpretation.



• Superfund Innovative Technology Evaluation (SITE)
  The Superfund Innovative Technology Evaluation (SITE) Program encourages the development and implementation of innovative treatment technologies for hazardous waste site remediation and monitoring and measurement.

For more information on the SITE program visit http://www.epa.gov/ord/SITE/.