The National Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra University®

Long Island Nitrogen Action Plan Collaborative

Long Island Nitrogen Action Plan Collaborative

The National Center for Suburban Studies (NCSS) has been awarded a series of substantial state grants to collaborate with the Town of Hempstead (ToH) Department of Conservation and Waterways and the Long Island Regional Planning Council. Facilitating the state’s critical Long Island Nitrogen Action Plan (LINAP), these grants continue and expand water quality monitoring in the Western Hempstead Bays that the ToH – the nation’s largest suburban town -- has performed for approximately five decades but gathering “dust” in town labs and archives. Now, Hofstra’s use of advanced geostatistical time series analysis and other complex research techniques has enabled academic and government researchers to examine the raw historic data and identify trends and gaps with important environmental and economic implications even beyond this exceptionally dense suburb. The widely heralded findings (see media links and a pdf of the report below) have been extremely useful to everyone from scientists and public officials to boaters and fishermen in evaluating and planning remediation efforts with an eye toward delivering relief for the environment – and taxpayers. This collaborative “town-gown” community-based project is led for Hofstra by Dr. Steve Raciti, Department of Biology, and enthusiastically supported by ToH Supervisor Donald X. Clavin and the entire Town Board.

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