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Author: Peter Revere Claggett P.O. Box 964 Phone: 610-917-2377 The Canaan Valley Institute (CVI) has developed a GIS-based landscape approach for evaluating the cumulative impacts from projects such as mountaintop mining. CVI's landscape approach incorporates ecological principles and modeling techniques derived from the science of landscape ecology. CVI has used GIS to model changes in over 20 environmental indicators resulting from proposed mountaintop mining and valley fill operations in Appalachia. Preliminary conclusions indicate that cumulative impacts are demonstrable on a watershed and subecoregion basis; seven indicators explain the majority of issues; and data quality issues must be resolved before broadly applying the indicators used in these analyses. |
