![[logo] US EPA](http://www.epa.gov/epafiles/images/logo_epaseal.gif){kind=logo}
Benefits of GEOSS in New York
In New York, Earth Observations will:
Enable state and local air quality forecasters to issue to the public more timely, accurate, and site-specific warnings about episodes of poor air quality so that people (especially the sensitive population) may take prudent actions to protect their health.
It is estimated that 31 million Americans including 9 million children have asthma. Ground level ozone in the summer time is the chief cause for poor air quality warnings and human exposure to ozone is known to aggravate asthma. Another component of air, airborne particulate matter, is associated with increased hospital admissions and emergency room visits for people with heart and lung disease and increased work and school absences.1
Asthma is a chronic disease of the lungs. In New York State (NYS), more than 1.1 million adults have asthma.2
Children with asthma miss more than 14 million school days annually and asthma accounts for an estimated 14.5 million lost work days per year.3
Help predict how changing environmental conditions affect fish and aquatic health in New York's waterways and help sustain a financial (national) income of $3.4 billion for commercial fishing and $20 billion in recreational fishing each year.
The economic value added to the national economy by the commercial fishing industry is approximately $28.5 billion yearly. Approximately 17 million Americans engage in marine fishing as a recreational activity and spend approximately $25 billion per year on fishing related activities.4
Aid in meteorological predictions of El Niño events and other high and lower water years; thereby, hoping to manage drought years, major spring floods, and water levels in streams and lakes that receive snow and rain runoff.
Overall, the 1997-1998 El Niño is estimated to have had total U.S. economic impacts on the order of $25 billion.5
Integrate satellite images and water quality models that will help pinpoint lakes and other recreational waters impacted by environmental pollutants like harmful algae blooms.
Drought is estimated to result in average annual losses to all sectors of the economy of between $6-8 billion nationally.6
Use improved storm and hurricane forecasts to reduce flooding, road loss, and property damage. Earth observations combine advancements in surface measures and satellite sensors, as well as additional data such as sea currents, sea surface temperature to have near real-time monitoring to forecast storms and hurricanes.
Coastal storms account for 71 percent of recent U.S. disaster losses annually. Each event costs roughly $500 million. With 14 events in a year, losses would total $7 billion per year.7
Track West Nile virus conditions, organisms, and spread of the disease, thereby improving protection of public health.
Protect New York's watershed through water quality monitoring and mapping land cover changes.
Protect drinking water sources at their origin. Landscape ecology analyses of water quality monitoring data and satellite imagery by the U.S. Geological Survey and EPA helped New Yorkers choose source water protection of the Catskill watershed over a more costly and less desirable filtration alternative.
Use improved weather forecasts to save New Yorkers millions of dollars in energy costs related to heating and cooling.
The value of understanding the interrelationships between weather variables and electric load can save a small utility at least $0.5 M annually through improved temperature forecasts.8
Track global warming effects. Integration of international data sets into Earth observations will help us detect signs of global warming, including sea level rise and coastal degradation.
Weather and climate sensitive industries, both directly and indirectly, account for about one-third of the Nations' GDP, or $3 trillion, ranging from finance, insurance, and real estate to services, retail and wholesale trade and manufacturing.9
1 U.S. Centers for Disease Control
2 Ibid.
3 CDC. Surveillance for asthma: United States, 1980-1999. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. 2002;51(SS01):1-13
4 Fisheries of the United States, 2000, 2001, 2002, http://www.st.nmfs.noaa.gov/st1/. Marine Angler Expenditures in the Northeast Region 1998. NOAA Tech Memo No. NMFS-F/SPO-47.
5 Changnon, Stanley A., ed. El Niño 1997-1998; The Climate Event of the Century, Oxford University Press, 2000.
6 Economic Impacts of Drought and the Benefits of NOAA's Drought Forecasting Services, NOAA Magazine, September 17, 2002. Website: http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/magazine/stories/mag51.htm.
7 The H. John Heinz III Center for Science Economics and the Environment, The Hidden Costs of Coastal Hazards: Implications for Risk Assessment and Mitigation, Island Press, 2000, Washington, D.C.
8 Tribble, A.N., 2003: The relationship between weather variables and electricity demand to improve short-term load forecasting. Ph. D. dissertation, School of Meteorology, University of Oklahoma, 221 pp., from Building The National Cooperative Mesonet: Program Development Plan For COOP Modernization dated October 2003.
9 Dutton, John A., Opportunities and priorities in a new era for weather and climate services, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, September 2002, volume 83, no. 9, pp 1303-1311.