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Self-Organizing Maps for Integrated Environmental Assessment of the Mid-Atlantic Region

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Abstract

A new method has been developed to perform environmental assessment at regional scale. This involves a combination of a self-organizing map (SOM) neural network and principal component analysis (PCA). The method is capable of clustering ecosystems in terms of environmental conditions and suggesting relative cumulative environmental impacts of multiple factors across a large region. Using data on land-cover, population, roads, streams, air pollution, and topography of the Mid-Atlantic region, the method was able to indicate areas that are in relatively poor environmental condition or vulnerable to future deterioration. Combining the strengths of SOM with those of PCA, the method offers an easy and useful way to perform a regional environmental assessment. Compared with traditional clustering and ranking approaches, the described method has considerable advantages, such as providing a valuable means for visualizing complex multidimensional environmental data at multiple scales and offering a single assessment or ranking needed for a regional environmental assessment while still facilitating the opportunity for more detailed analyses.

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Acknowledgements

L. T. Tran gratefully acknowledges partial support from the National Science Foundation and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Grant SBE-9978052, Brent Yarnal, Principal Investigator). This work has been funded wholly or in part by the United States Environmental Protection Agency under Cooperative Agreement number R-82880301 with Pennsylvania State University, Contract Number 68-C-98-187 with TN and Associates, and Contract number ISE00029 (COMMITS) with Waratah Corporation. It has been subjected to Agency review and approved for publication. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the National Science Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Integrated Regional Assessment and Department of Geography, The Pennsylvania State University, 2217 Earth and Engineering Sciences Building, University Park, PA, 16802, USA

    Liem T. Tran & C. Gregory Knight

  2. T.N. and Associates, 124 South Jefferson Circle, Oak Ridge, TN 37830, USA

    Robert V. O’Neill

  3. United States Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, National Exposure Research Laboratory, U.S. EPA (E243-05), 109 T.W. Alexander Drive, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711, USA

    Elizabeth R. Smith

  4. Waratah Corporation, 2505 Meridian Parkway, Suite 175, Durham, NC, USA

    Michael O’Connell

Authors
  1. Liem T. Tran
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  2. C. Gregory Knight
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  3. Robert V. O’Neill
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  4. Elizabeth R. Smith
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  5. Michael O’Connell
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Correspondence to Liem T. Tran.

Appendix

Appendix

Parameter values used in the vfind program of the SOMPAK package are seen in Table A1.

Table A1 Parameter values used in the vfind program of the SOMPAK package
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Tran, L., Knight, C., O’Neill, R. et al. Self-Organizing Maps for Integrated Environmental Assessment of the Mid-Atlantic Region. Environmental Management 31, 822–835 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-003-2917-6

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