CREM released a new draft guidance on the use of environmental models and a web-accessible Models Knowledge Base.

The EPA's Council for Regulatory Environmental Modeling, or CREM, has released a new draft guidance on the use of environmental models and a web-accessible Models Knowledge Base. Both are undergoing a joint review by the EPA's Science Advisory Board.

The paper, Draft Guidance on the Development, Evaluation and Application of Regulatory Environmental Models provides recommendations for environmental models drawn from the agency's white papers, Science Advisory Board reports and peer-reviewed literature. It provides model users, computer programmers and policymakers with an overview of best practices for evaluating the quality of environmental models.

The Models Knowledge Base is an inventory of the EPA's environmental models. It contains information about model use - about its requirements, use and how it can be obtained - as well as information about the basis, development and evaluation of the science used.

The EPA encourages the modeling community to provide feedback. See http://cfpub.epa.gov/crem/whatsnew.cfm.