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 | | Environmental Monitoring | | |
Long-term data collected is used to define and describe trends in biotic and abiotic components of the regional ecology and as a baseline to help
distinguish natural variation from man-made environmental alterations. Monitoring includes air quality, rain volume and chemistry, surface water
quality, vegetation communities, soil and sediment chemistry, and selected wildlife species and their habitats. Efforts emphasize 1) determination of
the status and spatial and temporal trends of species populations and communities and 2) development of inventories of the diversity, key components,
and processes of habitats and ecosystems, and 3) monitoring of natural and human-induced changes in biological systems.
These data are utilized by NASA during development of facility siting comments, EAs, permit applications, updating of the Environmental Resources
Document (ERD), and other environmental management activities as defined in KHB 8800.6. Information developed through long-term monitoring is also
critical to development and testing of predictive models defining functional relationships between biotic and abiotic components of the ecosystem which
are key to any predictive assessment of environmental impact or natural changes.
Objectives
- Provide long-term information on ambient air quality, rainfall, surface and ground water quality, sediments, soils, vegetation, and species of special concern for use in assessing natural and man-made alterations of Spaceport and surrounding ecosystems.
- Provide long-term data sets for use in developing and validating qualitative and quantitative models to document trends within KSC and surrounding areas.
- Develop long-term trend information for use in environmental management applications (permit applications, environmental assessments (EA), or environmental impact statements (EIS). Support ongoing updates of the Spaceport Environmental Resources Document.
- Define regional and local scale information on landscape changes and potential impacts for use in conservation planning and biodiversity management efforts.
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