May 30th, 2008
Link: http://www.smarte.org
The Cost-Benefit Group has been invited to sign a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) by The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Research and Development (ORD) National Risk Management Research Laboratory (NRMRL) to enhance "SMARTE".
Under this CRADA, decision support tools related to sustainable land management will be researched and developed. Tools such as educational materials, documents, case studies, checklists, calculators, spreadsheets, databases and decision analysis tools will be developed and incorporated into SMARTe.
SMARTe (Sustainable Management Approaches and Revitalization Tools – electronic) is a freely available, open source, web-based, decision support system located at: smarte.org. SMARTe helps users overcome site revitalization obstacles by providing information, resources, links, and case studies for all aspects of revitalization including planning, environmental issues, social acceptance, and economic viability. SMARTe also contains analysis tools for evaluating specific aspects of revitalization such as analyzing site characterization data, performing risk assessments, selecting a developer, and converting units of measurement. Further, SMARTe is an integrated decision support system that allows revitalization stakeholders to objectively evaluate reuse options for specific sites and circumstances using a cost-benefit calculator. Revitalization stakeholders can use SMARTe to help them understand social, economic, and ecological trade-offs, present information to other stakeholders, and develop a revitalization plan.