Title: UMBC Center for Urban Environmental Research and Education (provisional name change)

Acting Director: Andrew J. Miller, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Project Summary: The Center for for Studies of the Metropolitan Environment, located at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, will promote an integrated understanding of the environmental, social and economic impacts of landscape transformation associated with urban and suburban development. The Center will conduct collaborative research; contribute to graduate and undergraduate education; and sponsor workshops and symposia. The Center will provide a host environment for forming problem-solving teams of scientists, policy researchers, and decision-makers required for addressing specific research issues within the areas of concern outlined below. The Center will also be a forum where researchers and policy makers interact with the public and free exchange of ideas will take place. These activities will help shape socially responsible policies in protecting the environment.

We have identified five areas of concern. The first three are focused on environmental system response to development; the fourth is focused on the hazards and risks associated with system response; and the fifth is focused on policy issues as they relate both to environmental effects and social and economic consequences. The areas of concern are:

(1) watershed hydrologic response and the role of geomorphic systems in modulating inputs, storage, and delivery of water, sediment, and associated constituents from source areas to downstream locations;

(2) effects on biogeochemical cycling and the fate and transport of nutrients and contaminants through various media (e.g. air, water, soils and sediments, vegetation);

(3) effects on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, including habitat loss and fragmentation, changes in biodiversity, and changes in community composition;

(4) effects of changes in contaminant fate and transport on human and ecological health risks; and

(5) the influence of private-sector economic activity and of government policy on patterns of urban and suburban development and environmental quality

The Baltimore-Washington and larger Middle Atlantic Regions provide a natural laboratory for the study of the environmental consequences of different development patterns and policies. The well-known problems afflicting Chesapeake Bay are often attributed to the effects of land use in the upstream watersheds, and ongoing urban sprawl is widely believed to be responsible for some of the most significant and rapid local changes along riparian corridors, in fragmented habitat areas, and in receiving waters. The Smart Growth initiative in Maryland is one response to this perceived trend. Questions about environmental effects of urban development and the linkages between social, economic and environmental patterns are being addressed by the Baltimore Ecosystem Study (BES), one of the first two NSF-funded Urban Long-Term Ecological Research projects. BES headquarters are located on the UMBC campus and form part of a network of collaborative relationships with other academic institutions, public agencies, and citizens' groups concerned with the relationship between urban development and environment. The Center will build on this network, broaden the scope of research, and expand the scale to include national and international comparisons.

A small percentage of the Center's budget will be used to provide partial support for environmental science laboratory facilities and field monitoring sites on the UMBC campus. These will augment the university's curriculum for training students in collection and processing of water, soil, air, vegetation, and aquatic invertebrate samples. The students will then be eligible to serve as interns and research assistants.

Funding from EPA will be used to develop a program that can sustain itself through externally sponsored grants and contracts. Funds requested in this proposal will be used to provide support services, to bring a research professor, postdoctoral researcher, and graduate assistants to campus, and to provide seed grants for developing competitive proposals. Funds will also be used to bring visitors to campus who may collaborate in developing research proposals, serve as technical consultants on topics where outside expertise is requested, or serve as visiting scholars who will deliver lectures, participate in informal meetings and information exchanges on designated topics, interact with students, and assist in planning and carrying out major conferences.

The Center will work with partners from EPA and from other federal, state, and local agencies, as well as scientists from other academic institutions and representatives from the private sector to help develop strategies for environmental assessment and policy based on the results of current research. The Center will also be a place where a broad range of environmental research activities across the campus will be coordinated and can be discussed, including research that may not be strictly within the scope of work or directly funded by the Center.