Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program | Region 8

Environmental Monitoring and Assessment

The Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program is a research program that is designed to monitor and assess the status and trends of national ecological resources. EMAP's goal is to develop the scientific understanding for translating environmental monitoring data into assessments of ecological condition and forecasts of the future risks to the sustainability of our natural resources.

In EPA Region 8, EMAP's Western Pilot is focused on landscape conditions and aquatic resources with the goal of extending probability-based sampling to all streams, estuaries, and coastal waters across the western United States. EPA Region 8 is the focus of this assessment along with EPA Regions 9 and 10.

EMAP is "a new way of doing business." It addresses the larger scale, longer term environmental problems occurring at regional and national scales. Instead of taking the traditional single-chemical or single-site approach to environmental assessment, EMAP adopts a comprehensive, mULtimedia perspective of the environment to answer questions about overall ecological condition. EMAP has been designed to serve ULtimately as "America's Ecological Report Card."

The Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program assesses ecological conditions of coastal waters, waters on land, and land areas across large portions of the United States.

In the future, we can compare this snapshot with a new one. This comparison will show if ecosystems are improving or getting worse.
ResULts from EMAP will also identify activities or substances that affect the condition of ecosystems.
EMAP helps those responsible for managing lands, water, and air to determine the best ways to keep these resources in good condition.