1.     To develop computer simulations (models) of environmental issues in northwest Indiana.
2.     To develop a 400 level biology course: Environmental Models in Northwest Indiana
3.     The course will also teach the high school standards in Environmental Science, Advanced .. HTML
4.     The course will complement existing 300-500 level biology courses (list below)
5.     To use the models to predict the outcomes of applying different solutions to environmental issues

Goals 2-5
Course duration 15 weeks: textbook, local application, laboratory/field (3 cr. 300 level), + 1 modeling (for 400 credit)
Principles of Environmental Science, 2/e, WP Cunningham & MA Cunningham, ISBN: 0072919833, 2004
Cunningham: Case Studies by Chapter
Cunningham: Activities Guide
The Natural Heritage of Indiana, by Marion T. Jackson, 0-253-33074-2, Indiana University Press, 1997
NW IN Archive Environmental Reports
Daily Environmental News..

EPA:..WhereYou Live has zip code search for info. with maps: Enviromapper..Window to my Environment..
EPA: Edu...Databases/Software..Data&ToolsforScience + environ aware..greatlakes..exposure assessment models & data
GIS Atlas for Indiana - many overlays of land uses, more than in subset = Lake Michigan Rim
Local Government Environmental Assistance Network Tools
USGS..click IN on map for Biology..Geology..Maps..Minerals..Water..LakeMI.Ecol.Res.Sta..GreatLakesScienceCenter..

Ch 1: Understanding Our Environment
http://www.myfootprint.org/..your lifestyle requirement..Answer..Satellite Imagery

Ch 2: Principles of Ecology: Matter, Energy, and Life
Carbon Debt Calculator..Ecology & Society J.

Ch 3: Populations, Communities, and Species Interaction
Breeding Bird Survey & Resources..
Invasive Species..

Ch 4: Human Populations
http://www.mhhe.com/biosci/pae/cunningham_principles/

Ch 5: Biomes and Biodiversity
Mapping Global Biodiversity
UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Center
BioQUEST Biocomplexity Project

Ch 6: Environmental Conservation: Forests, Grasslands, Parks, and Nature Preserves
http://www.chicagowildernessmag.com/issues/fall2002/bioblitz.html
IN Biodiversity Initiative Conservation Tool/Porter Co Land Use Plan
DNR:.Forest Legacy Program..Nature Preserves (data on many issues)
Ecosystem Restoration: Upper Mississippi (example for Kankakee)
Nature Conservancy: Southern Lake MI Rim
Wildlands At Risk

Ch 7: Food and Agriculture
IDEM:.Indiana land quality
Purdue Conservation Technology Information Center = Better Farming Techniques

Ch 8: Environmental Health and Toxicology
WHO:..World Statistics..Health Topics..
Toxics Release Inventory Data for 2002
Toxicstargeting.com/free_maps.htm...has uses of ArcView & ArcInfo
Pollutants
http://www.in.gov/idem/mercury/

Ch 9: Air: Climate and Pollution
RemoteSensingSystems..
IDEM:..AIR:..northwest IN non-attainment: ozone..fine particles
NIPSCO Takes a Bite Out of Pollution
NOAA:..Oceans store CO2..2..PacificEnvLab: Data incl. Software, Theme incl. Visualization

Ch 10: Water: Resources and Pollution
Today'sWaterFlow..WatershedInformation..GroundwaterProtection..Reports..
Indiana Water Quality..Center for Watershed Protection: literature..Purdue: Know Your Watershed
IDEM: Water..Watershed Restoration..Kankakee.&.Little Calumet-Galien/Chicago
EPA/Lake MI.beck.judy@epa.gov..Lake MI watersheds: GrandCalumet but EPA Region 5 & Great Lakes have info. LaMP
IN DNR Lake Michigan..
US Steel: Grand_Calumet Sediment Remediation
EPA/IN Watersheds..EPA/Little Calumet/Galien..Kankakee..EPA/TMDL
WatershedsConference

Olyphant/E.coli..

Models: EPA Water has Water Science with Tools incl. Models like AQUATOX: for aquatic ecosystems. Predicts fate of pollutants like nutrients and organics, and their ecosystem effects on fish, invertebrates, and aquatic plants. AQUATOX is for ecological risk assessments. Also includes BASINS: analysis system for watershed and water quality studies. Assess point and nonpoint source data. Enables assessment of water quality at stream sites or through entire watershed. Integrates environmental data, analytical tools, and modeling programs for development of cost-effective approaches to environmental protection. SWAT..is a river basin scale model developed to quantify the impact of land management practices in large, complex watersheds.
Impacts of Land Use Change on Water Resources: Purdue: Peak & LTHIA

Ch 11: Environmental Geology and Earth Resources
USGS..Explorer..
Earth Science
Indiana Geological Survey..maps - Lake MI rim, databases, watersheds

Ch 12: Energy
Auto.FuelEconomy..

Wind Handbook..Midwest Map..leading country
Urban/Suburban Heat Island Effect..what can be done

Ch 13: Solid and Hazardous Waste
PAHLS: inventory of reports

Ch 14: Sustainability and Human Development
Sustainable Development:.DOE..Good site..LGEAN..UN..WorldBusiness..Int.Inst..NeutralResource..
Land use: A Field Guide to Sprawl by Dolores Hayden, W.W. Norton, 2004
NIH Image..PC Scion Image..Image/Java..GPS store (Garmin 12XL)..CreateMapSoftware
PorterCoGov..PlanCom/LandUsePlan.Technical Advisory Cttee.Board of Zoning Appeals.
ValpoGov..PlanCom..RedevelCom..
LaPorteCo..PLAN?..LaPorteCity..Mayor'sPlan..
Natural Capitalism
Restoration:
MarquettePlan..Resource ..Portage..2..
NPS: IDNL

Ch 15: Environmental Science and Policy
http://www.elpc.org/
Strategic Ignorance Book

Resources

FEDERAL..
USGS.... Indiana....water....USDA

I belong to local environmental groups including the Coffee Creek Watershed Conservancy, the Duneland Group of the Sierra Club, Save the Dunes, the Valparaiso Chain of Lakes Watershed Group (VCW), the Nature Conservancy, and the Valparaiso Pathways Committee. These groups, and many more, are engaged in conservation and restoration. Northwest Indiana has made many gains, but losses continue and increase. Particularly damaging are the effects of sprawl, air and water pollution, and invasive species threaten or dominate in many environments.

1. Northwest Indiana is rich in ecological diversity due to its proximity to Lake Michigan. But for the same reason, it is also the site of industrial activity, high human population density, and endless through traffic. I belong to local environmental groups including the Coffee Creek Watershed Conservancy, the Duneland Group of the Sierra Club, Save the Dunes, the Valparaiso Chain of Lakes Watershed Group (VCW), the Nature Conservancy, and the Valparaiso Pathways Committee. These groups, and many more, are engaged in conservation and restoration. Northwest Indiana has made many gains, but losses continue and increase. Particularly damaging are the effects of sprawl, air and water pollution, and invasive species threaten or dominate in many environments.

Decisions by groups attempting to deal with environmental problems get bogged down because the relative merits of different solutions are not known. For example the VCW does not know how to deal with Eurasian milfoil: should it treat the lakes with chemicals, or should a biological control organism, a weevil, be encouraged? Constructing models, using available data, which can be used to predict the answers to what if questions, is one purpose of this sabbatical leave proposal. Examples of environmental issues are truly endless, however a relatively stable source (other newspapers have a time limit on keeping www-posted articles) is the Chesterton Tribune's Environment page. A few examples: if and where to site a new landfill in Porter county, should the Illinana Expressway be built?, how to deal with various invasive species?, and should houses in the Valparaiso lakes area be connected to a sewer to replace septic fields? Clearly there are plenty of problems for the sabbatical and future study.

2. Engaging students in environmental issues is an important part of PNC's Biology outreach. I have an environment web page for use of students and others. In BIOL 205 & 206, for Majors in Elementary Education, students complete individual projects in which they choose course related topics, but I encourage projects concerning the environment (scroll down on the project page). Each semester several students become involved in environmental issues, and their projects are good experiences in Service Learning. When these students become teachers, their students will also become aware of local environmental issues. I anticipate Biology majors taking the proposed 400 level course will not only enjoy learning, but also become active stewards of the environment.

To build and test the models requires three things: software, model building skills, and data. One of the best examples at the undergraduate level of using computers in biology is BioQUEST. I have supported their projects for years, including attending two workshops in Beloit, WI. The BioQUEST Library CD contains their models, and many other uses of computers in biology such as in image analysis and bioinformatics. Image analysis can be used to study various environmental issues, such as the spread of invasive species. Included in BioQUEST's library are many examples of environmental models, including three on environmental decision making: A Pond Ecosystem, A Grassland Fire System, and Logging a Forest. These simulations are written in EXTEND, and intended to be modified to fit specific locations/situations. BioQUEST has just published a lab manual Microbes Count! In its contents are chapters on Microbial Ecology, Microbial Control, and Microbial Interactions. Simulations in these chapters are also useful starting points for developing models to fit different situations. BioQUEST's simulations are intended to be used in this way. BioQUEST is offering a workshop in June 2004 in Systems Biology. I hope to attend this workshop to hone my modeling and programming expertise. By June 2004 I intend to have some draft models built of environmental issues in nw IN, to share with others attending the workshop.

BioQUEST uses various software packages, including High Performance Systems' STELLA, in-house BIOTA, & Imagine That's EXTEND. At both the STELLA and EXTEND web sites are downloadable examples of many uses of their software, including ecosystem models. An alternative fully supported software is Northwesten University's NetLogo. There are many other sources of software including, for example, the EPA models for river & watershed pollution. Last, empirical models are built from data, by using a spreadsheet for calculation and manipulation.

Once the problem is defined data can be found; but it is a question of looking in the right places. The Hoosier Riverwatch site (DNR) provides data on rivers. IDEM gives proposed standards (Total Maximum Daily Load) for polluting rivers! Scorecard gives some sources of environmental pollution. The EPA has a lot of clean up work to do in northwest IN. Both the Great Lakes Directory and the Great Lakes Information Network have searchable databases on the environment. My conservation page is a good place to begin looking for data, as it has all these links, and many more. On September 19, 2003 I attended the Indiana Coastal Workshop in Chesterton. Joe Tutterrow, director of Indiana Land Resources Council, presented data on most aspects of land use in northwest Indiana. Scroll down Indiana agencies list for data some many issues.

3. Indiana's Academic Standards for high school Environmental Science, Advanced are a well constructed list of the main concepts taught in an introductory course in environmental science. The Standards are general, not specific to a region, except that Cowles is mentioned in an historical standard. My intention with the new course is that it will appeal not only to PNC students, but also to area high school teachers who are interested in Environmental Science, but do not have adequate background to teach in that area. The new course will include local models illustrating the major listed Standards in the areas of Environmental Systems, Flow of Matter and Energy, Populations, Natural Resources, and Environmental Hazards. To ensure coverage of the Standards an appropriate textbook in environmental science will be adopted for the proposed course. It is fortunate that these Standards are available to guide the development of the simulations and the new course at PNC.

4. This sabbatical work will impact a wide variety of PNC courses including: BIOL 325: Natural History of Northwest Indiana, BIOL 449: Environmental Microbiology, BIOL 483: Environmental and Conservation Biology, BIOL 585: Ecology, BTNY 555: Aquatic Botany, FNR 540: Wetlands Ecology, FNR 501: Limnology. Botanist Robin Scribailo teaches most of these courses. He has requested for years additional faculty to help with the load.

5. Models develop and improve over time. They will be used to predict the outcomes to different proposed solutions concerning regional environmental issues. I intend that the models will be both used to make informed choices, and published at least at the regional level, such as in the Indiana Academy of Science. Some models may be incorporated into a new Systems Biology publication by BioQUEST, their reason for holding the workshop in June 2004.

End of Proposal

Environmental Education and Training Partnership...includes online courses & CD ROM meeting k-12 standards

Additional Information from BioQUEST newsletter
Institute for Systems Biology......International Conference on Systems Biology, 2001
A Biochemical Network Layout Tool Systems Biology Software at the Keck Graduate Institute
James B. Bassingthwaighte.....Physiome Project..
Gene Micro Array Pathway Profiler .... Dr. Kam Dahlquist
Comparative Genomics Center @ Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Tools for Use in Computational Molecular Biology and Bioinformatics

Regional case studies (USA) - scroll down to Midwest
Worldwide - Environmental Issues

What may be modeled (need data or collect it):
Researcher blames beach closings on lack of testing, Associated Press,05/10/03, Richard Whitman / E. coli
Invasive Species
Environmental Pollution
Natural Ecosystems
Changes in Land Use
Indiana DNR Projects WET & WILD
Civil Engineer Software
Watershed Education Tool
Indiana Natural Resources Education Center

Netlogo language http://www.modelingcomplexity.org/workshop2004/

STD Proposal

Eclpss (Ecological Component Library for Parallel Spatial Simulation) is a Java(TM)-based framework designed to give ecologists the ability to easily develop grid-based simulations of ecosystems at multiple spatial and temporal scales. Eclpss models are targeted automatically to run on a variety of platforms, including single-processor and shared memory parallel (SMP) machines.

CORMIX is a USEPA-approved mixing zone model and decision support system for environmental impact assessment of regulatory mixing zones resulting from continuous point source discharges. The system emphasizes the role of boundary interaction to predict steady-state mixing behavior and plume geometry. The CORMIX methodology contains systems to model submerged single-port and multiport diffuser discharges as well as surface discharge sources. Effluents considered may be conservative, non-conservative, heated, or contain suspended sediments. Advanced information systems provide documented water quality modeling, NPDES regulatory decision support, visualization of regulatory mixing zones, and tools for outfall specification and design. CORMIX software is licensed and distributed by MixZon Inc. Dr. Robert L. Doneker is the primary contact for CORMIX information and technical support. This site also contains updated material about CORMIX-GI development at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Portland State University.

GIS & MAPPING SOFTWARE...ArcView is the world's most popular desktop GIS and mapping software, with more than 500,000 copies in use worldwide. ArcView provides data visualization, query, analysis, and integration capabilities along with the ability to create and edit geographic data. ArcExplorer is a lightweight GIS data viewer developed by ESRI. This freely available software offers an easy way to perform basic GIS functions. ArcExplorer is used for a variety of display, query, and data retrieval applications and supports a wide variety of standard data sources. It can be used on its own with local data sets or as a client to Internet data and map servers.

NorthwesternU 1,,nwu,,Visual Solutions (engineering applications),,
Place-Based Planning & Design
Climate Change & Midwest Ag http://nigec.ucdavis.edu/publications/annual97/midwestern/project78.html
More http://216.239.37.104/search?q=cache:RdayA_PCOAgJ:cdiac.esd.ornl.gov/science-meeting/
argonne-oct2001/session.abstracts.doc+ecosystem+models+indiana&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
More: http://www.er.doe.gov/production/ober/CCRD/nigec.html
Ecoregions of Indiana & Ohio http://www.epa.gov/wed/pages/ecoregions/ohin_eco.htm
Deforestation...http://www.geo.ucl.ac.be/LUCC/research/endorsed/08-cipec/cipec.html
Economics models http://repec.org/
NASA Earth Observing System About the Earth Observing System, The Terrestrial Ecosystem Model and Beyond,
The Drainage Basin Model, Educational Activities, Changes in Biogeochemical Cycles
School of Public & Environmental Affairs at Indiana University Northwest
U Florida: Certif in Env Policy Man Description...center for env policy HAS ODUM DOWNLOADS
Data
TMDL...http://www.in.gov/idem/water/assessbr/tmdl/

Issues
Parking lots and runoff Las Vegas
Tee shading

Bikepaths/footpaths
Modeling in Biology to replace Vickie's course
Plant or animal markers of pollution in nwIN e.g. decline in amphibian #
Inventory of Invertebrates in nwIN..National Lakeshore Nature & Science
Biological control of invasive species e.g...Purple_loostrife..more..Eurasian water-milfoil
Monitoring the Mnoke Prairie or Coffee Creek Watershed or Beach closings or Land Use
Environmental Pollution: Scorecard...EPA/site11...EPA/Region5..
A Prosperous Way Down: Principles and Policies..By Howard T. Odum and Elisabeth C. Odum
IDEM'S TMDL PAGE .& data for nwIN: Lake MI, Little Calumet, Trail Creek & Salt Creek
Use extensive data on these sites to build reliable model
Bioinformatics Group (Australia, includes biodiversity)
Bioinformatics Organization
References: UnseenLifeOnEarth.Am.Soc.Microbiol..MicrobeLibrary.NIHImage&more.ScionImage(scroll).

Companies
http://www.appliedeco.com/Index.cfm ...Little Calumet - Galien River Watershed Study completed April 2001 (could not find)