The Gulf Coastal States region is prone to the highest national frequency of both weather and severe weather problems accompanied by economic loss (e,g., severe convection, flooding, tropical cyclones, ice storms, fog etcetera). Yet the region has not been adequately studied with regard to important coastal and meteorological processes nor the region's "Weather Dynamics". Understanding, modeling, and predicting these processes, is important for agriculture, fisheries, and forestry management. The ultimate challenge of Environmental Risk Assessment is to develop and use available and developing capabilities to predict those changes that occur, both naturally and in response to human activity, and which effect local economies and infrastructures. The phenomenon of interest selected here (heavy rains and flooding) is narrowly defined in order to depict, analyze, and predict (or manage) environmental dynamics through the use and application of GIS/RS data and technologies. Flood producing storms in the Mississippi River Basin have been well-documented for some time (e.g., US Department of Commerce Hydro-meteorological Report No. 34, 1956) and recent impacts of major rainfall events ever since (e.g., NOAA Technical Memorandum SR-183 "The Historic Southeast Louisiana and Southern Mississippi Flood Event of May 8-10, 1995", 1997). The economic impacts of floods on the lower Mississippi has also been considered in terms of a historical overview (Technical Attachment SR/SSD 98-9, 1998) in terms of damage and costs.

The primary goals of this project are to (1) provide a national model of Environmental Risk Assessment as it pertains to local economies and infrastructures, (2) develop and build the capacity of the Jackson State University's School of Science and Technology in the arena of specific GIS/RS integrative applications, and (3) foster a significant collaborative and working relationship between Jackson State University and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Environmental Satellite Data and Information Service. The Project activities to meet these goals include the following: (i) design of an Environmental Risk Assessment Integrative Systems Approach (ERAISA) for the Operational Depiction and Assessment of Coastal Risk; (ii) delivery of an Operational ERAISA Depiction and a Predictive Demonstration of Environmental Risk for Mississippi and the Coastal Zone; (iii)implementation and cultivation of Scientific Exchange and Cooperative Activities that apply the ERAISA methods in decision-making; (iv)dissemination of the ERAISA method and background environmental science plan for Distance Learning and other educational platforms of delivery; and (v) incorporation of ERAISA within the National Spatial Data Infrastructure initiative for environmental risk assessment applications, management, and decision-making.