BASINS and WEPP Climate Assessment Tools: Case Study Guide to Potential Applications

EPA is announcing a 30-day public comment period for the draft document titled, BASINS and WEPP Climate Assessment Tools (CAT): Case Study Guide to Potential Applications (EPA/600/R-11/123A). EPA also is announcing that an EPA contractor for external scientific peer review will select an independent group of experts to conduct a letter peer- review of the draft document. The document was prepared by the National Center for Environmental Assessment within EPA's Office of Research and Development, and is intended to support application of two recently developed water modeling tools, the BASINS and WEPP climate assessment tools. The report presents a series of short case studies designed to illustrate the capabilities of these tools for conducting scenario based assessments of the potential future effects of climate, land use, and management change on water resources. EPA intends to forward the public comments that are submitted in accordance with this notice to the external peer-reviewers for their consideration during the letter review. When finalizing the draft document, EPA intends to consider any public comments received in accordance with this notice. EPA is releasing this draft assessment for the purposes of public comment and peer review. This draft assessment is not final as described in EPA's information quality guidelines, and it does not represent and should not be construed to represent Agency policy or views. The draft document is available via the Internet on the NCEA home page under the Recent Additions and the Data and Publications menus at http://www.epa.gov/ncea.