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Growth and redistribution of human population and activities are resulting in increasing pressure on ecological systems. The impacts include loss of ecological services, decline in biodiversity, invasion by exotic species, and decline in quantity and quality of water supplies.
HARC's Ecosystems and Water Resources Program emphasizes biodiversity, water quality and quantity, ecosystem informatics, economics, policy, and social and institutional analysis. The goal of the Program is to link ecosystems and water resources to sustainable development through improved understanding of the interactions between humans and these resources and to facilitate regulatory, institutional and technological change and improved decision making.
HARC's approach is interdisciplinary and integrative. HARC compiles and manages numerous databases describing environmental quality, biological and water resources, and aquatic and terrestrial habitats in its region. Information technology tools and geographic information systems allow HARC to translate the data into information through the development of environmental indicators and to monitor changes in ecosystem and water resources. Using innovative applications of a variety of non-market valuation techniques, HARC seeks to provide economic representation of the ecosystem, and help decision-makers achieve more effective stewardship. Using a variety of ethnographic methods, HARC examines the social values people attach to natural resources and what they consider to be appropriate resource management approaches. HARC's ability to integrate ecological and social science methods provides a realistic starting point to investigate design sustainable management alternatives for the region.
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The Blue Water Technology Program was created in response to the growing demand for new, environmentally intelligent technology for the offshore and maritime industry. HARC collaborates with NAVSEA-Carderock, a 3,800 person research organization chartered by Congress to support the domestic maritime industry, and industry to take existing Navy technology and applies it to the needs of the offshore, energy, and maritime industries. Program Sponsors are from businesses, educational institutions, and non-profit organizations involved in the offshore and maritime industry.
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HARC has completed a 2006-07 project with the Texas Groundwater Protection Committee (TGPC) to develop a proposed Texas Groundwater Monitoring Strategy. Monitoring groundwater quality is necessary before estimating how much is available for use. The project assessed the challenges of combining data at different agencies into a data management system. It identified large gaps in the monitoring of certain contaminants of concern to water managers. It recommended systematic monitoring of pesticides and other chemicals posing significant health threats.
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Environmental issues are a significant part of every energy industry endeavor whether exploiting new natural gas resources in Western U.S., or extending field development in coastal areas of the U.S. Aware of the need to address environmental issues, Texas A&M University, HARC, and Noble Drilling have created an engineering/environmental research program to address the engineering challenges and protection of our environment while exploring and producing natural gas and oil.
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The Galveston Bay Freshwater Inflows Group includes staff from relevant natural resource agencies, representatives from environmental groups, fisheries and agricultural interests, and water district managers. The group has been meeting since 1996 to devise strategies to maintain adequate freshwater inflows to Galveston Bay.
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The Galveston Bay Invasive Plant Field Guide highlights prohibited and high risk invasive plant species found in or having the potential to invade habitats of the Lower Galveston Bay Watershed. The field guide provides color photos, descriptive information, control techniques, and native plant alternatives for home owners, land managers, and gardening enthusiasts in the Houston-Galveston region.
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The Galveston Bay Status and Trends Project is funded by the Galveston Bay Estuary Program. The Status and Trends Project gathers, analyzes, and makes available historical and recent data describing physical characteristics, biological resources, and human uses of Galveston Bay and the surrounding watershed.
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The Houston Wilderness Atlas of Biodiversity will be a book that aims to highlight the diversity, cultural importance, and global environmental value of the natural environment found within the 24-county Houston Wilderness project area.
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HARC is collaborating with the University of Maryland and Texas A&M to identify rural stakeholders' cultural knowledge about land conservation in the Big Thicket Region in Texas and the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay.
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In a collaborative effort with Texas A&M University, this research will illuminate the interactions between science and society in the Big Thicket area of the Piney woods ecoregion in eastern Texas, focusing on how science-based policy is put into practice by private organizations that manage conservation lands.
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HARC is a regional node of the US Geological Survey's NBII program and acquires, analyzes, and provides Web-based access to biodiversity data and environmental resource information.
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HARC is funded by a major national foundation to support water conservation and planning in the Texas-Mexico desert border region.
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HARC is working with the Texas General Land Office Coastal Management Program to implement the National Coastal Management Performance Measurement System in Texas. This system consists of a framework of measures developed to quantify management outcomes related to the Coastal Zone Management Act and the Coastal Management Program.
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HARC is using innovative approaches to place an economic value on the water that sustains coastal ecosystems.
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| Page Updated/Reviewed: 05/06/2008 10:23 AM |
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