Research Guides: CET495-496: Civil Engineering Capstone: Environmental Impact Resources

General Resources

Statista This link opens in a new window
Market and consumer data and all things statistics. Downloadable data, numbers, and facts in various formats on various topics and industries.

Envirofacts
Provides access to several EPA databases with information about environmental activities that may affect air, water, and land anywhere in the United States.

GreenFILE This link opens in a new window
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Covers human impact to the environment. Subjects include environmental effects of individuals, corporations and governments, climate change, green building, pollution, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, and recycling.
Associates Programs Source Plus This link opens in a new window
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Wide-ranging subjects such as alcohol & drug abuse counseling, biotechnology, computer & data processing, CAD, electrical technology, forensics, graphic art, health information technology, law enforcement & criminal justice, robotics, and more.

Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) Program
Compiles data on toxic chemical releases and waste management activities reported annually by certain industries as well as federal facilities and makes it available through data files and database tools.

Journal of Sustainable Water in the Built Environment by American Society of Civil Engineers
The Journal of Sustainable Water in the Built Environment presents activity and research developments in water issues, challenges, and opportunities throughout the developed landscape. The scope covers sustainable stormwater management and broader water systems interactions. Subjects include urban stormwater quantity, quality, hydrology, characterization, treatability, and impacts; water harvesting; urban water ecosystem services; sustainable urban watershed management; urban streams; combined sewer overflow/stormwater interactions; urban energy/water interactions; lifecycle analysis; and related policy, implementation, and economics. All papers are encouraged to have design or regulatory implications that are applicable to moving the profession forward.
Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management by American Society of Civil Engineers
The Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management reports on all phases of planning and management of water resources. The papers examine social, economic, environmental, and administrative concerns relating to the use and conservation of water. Social and environmental objectives in areas such as fish and wildlife management, water-based recreation, and wild and scenic river use are assessed. Developments in computer applications are discussed, as are ecological, cultural, and historical values.

PA Natural Diversity Inventory

Pennsylvania Natural Heritage Program
PNHP is a member of NatureServe, an international network of natural heritage programs that gather and provide information on the location and status of important ecological resources (plants, vertebrates, invertebrates, ecological communities and geologic features).
Conservation Tools: PNHC
Includes interactive maps, reports, and other conservation tools to serve different functions but can work together to provide maximum information about the potential biodiversity of a given area.
PA Conservation Explorer
a one stop shop for conservation planning and PNDI environmental review. The Explorer provides conservation information on biological diversity, protected lands, streams and other natural resources for planning purposes and also allows users to screen a project area for potential impacts to threatened, endangered, and special concern species.

Endangered Species

Environmental Review List: PNHP
The Environmental Review list includes threatened and endangered species, special concern species, and rare and significant ecological features, which are screened for in Conservation Explorer.
Threatened & Endangered Species: PA Game Commission
List of endangered, threatened, and recovering species of Pennsylvania.

Air Quality

Air Quality Index Reports: PA Dept. of Environmental Protection
The AQI reports on five major air pollutants: ozone, particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide. An AQI value is given for each monitoring site and pollutant. The overall AQI for a site is the highest index value of any of the pollutants.
Air Quality Partnership: PA.GOV
The goals of the Air Quality Partnership are to increase the public's understanding on the impact of air pollution, provide alerts for days with high air pollution, provide health effects information and guidelines to prevent or reduce exposure, and finally encourage voluntary actions to reduce air pollution emissions.
AirNow: U.S. Air Quality Index
Search your location for details on air quality, primary pollutants of the ozone, special announcements, archived info, or live air quality webcams. Information provided by the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection.
Bureau of Air Quality: PA Dept. of Environmental Protection
Included general announcements, comments to the EPA, proposals, and long-term projects provided by the DEP.
Air Quality: National Weather Service
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), in partnership with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), issues daily air quality forecast guidance as part of a national Air Quality Forecasting Capability. NOAA's National Weather Service (NWS) currently provides forecast guidance for ozone and smoke based on numerical atmospheric predictions updated twice daily.

Water Quality

Office of Water Programs: DEP
DEP's Office of Water Programs administers and oversees departmental programs involving surface and groundwater quantity and quality planning, and soil and water conservation.
Public Streambeds Interactive Map
Pennsylvania Department of Conservation & Natural Resources Bureau of Forestry interactive map of all streams in the state of Pennsylvania. County boundaries can be added as well to print and download data.
USGS Water-Quality Data for PA
The U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) National Water Information System (NWIS) is a comprehensive and distributed application that supports the acquisition, processing, and long-term storage of water data. Water Data for the Nation serves as the publicly available portal to a geographically seamless set of much of the water data maintained within NWIS
USGS National Water Dashboard
New interactive map to access real-time water data from over 13,500 stations nationwide.
Water Quality Standards Regulations: PA: EPA
Presented are water quality standards in effect for Clean Water Act (CWA) purposes for this state. EPA is posting these standards as a convenience to users and has made a reasonable effort to assure their accuracy.
PWEA: Pennsylvania Water Environment Association
Links to the positions and fact sheets on general information purposes from the PWEA.
Water Quality Monitoring Protocols for Streams & Rivers
From the Office of Water Programs Bureau of Clean Water of the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection, the report details the monitoring and data collection currently used by the PA DEP to meet surface water objectives and flowing waterbodies.
EWG Drinking Water Quality Report: Pennsylvania
Shows results of tests conducted by the water utilities in Pennsylvania and provided to EWG by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.
Water Environment Federation
Formed in 1928, the Water Environment Federation (WEF) is a not-for-profit technical and educational organization with 32,000 individual members and 80 affiliated Member Associations representing an additional 50,000 water quality professionals throughout the world. WEF and its member associations proudly work to achieve our mission of preserving and enhancing the global water environment.
USGS: Water Resources
USGS's Water Resources Mission Area website where you can monitor, assess, and research conditions including streamflow, groundwater, water quality, and use/availability.