EPA 903-R-96-014
CBP/TRS 156/96
CHESAPEAKE BAY
BASINWIDE MONITORING STRATEGY:
FROM
AIRSHEDS TO LIVING RESOURCE POPULATIONS
Workplan for the development of a framework for
integrating ongoing, planned, and future monitoring
across the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem
in support of Bay restoration and protection
November 1996
Center (3PM52)
841 Chestnut Street
* 191°7
EPA Report Collection
Information Resource Center
US EPA Region 3
Philadelphia, PA 19107
Chesapeake Bay Program
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CHESAPEAKE BAY BASINWIDE MONITORING STRATEGY:
FROM AIRSHEDS TO LIVING RESOURCE POPULATIONS
Workplan for the development of a framework for
integrating ongoing, planned, and future monitoring
across the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem in
support of Bay restoration and protection
Prepared by
The Monitoring Subcommittee
Chesapeake Bay Program
November 1996
Printed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
for the Chesapeake Bay Program
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Basinwide Monitoring Strategy,
Corps, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers seek to develop a protocol by which a small group
of volunteers could inventory streams within the watershed. The field data collected includes
information on eroding streambanks, inadequate stream buffers, fish migration barriers, potential
stream restoration/water quality retrofit sites, and biological resources. Data is organized via an
integrated GIS mapping/data base/photo library system and problem areas are prioritized based
upon severity, access, and potential for correction. The information gathered during this
inventory will be used to set up permanent stream cross sections and will help local governments
compete more effectively for Federal and State grants.
Contact for parallel effort: Christine Buckley and Ken Yetman
Monitoring Subcommittee designated lead: Paul Sneeringer
Nutrient Subcommittee Review of Nonpoint Source Monitoring Needs - ongoing evaluation
of recommendations from U.S. Geological Survey synthesis of nutrient and sediment data (see
below) and seeks to implement those recommendations supporting the 1997 reevaluation.
Contact for parallel effort: RussMader
Monitoring Subcommittee designated lead: Scott Phillips
Mid-Atlantic Integrated Assessment - combines a number of complex state, regional, and
national environmental monitoring programs into an assessment process specifically targeted to
the management needs of U.S. EPA Region HI and the surrounding states. It also provides a
conceptual framework for focusing the EPA Office of Research and Development research to
ensure that it is consistent with EPA's needs. In addition to improving the overall assessment
process, the Mid-Atlantic Integrated Assessment will strengthen the scientific basis of EPA's
Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program through integrated, place-based research that
addresses critical scientific issues raised by the National Research Council and other peer
reviewers. When fully developed, Mid-Atlantic Integrated Assessment will provide a suite of
environmental assessment tools to integrate land cover information, other measures of human-
caused environmental stress, and the biological assessment of multiple resource categories.
Contact for parallel effort: Tom Pheiffer
Monitoring Subcommittee designated lead: Joseph Macknis
Mid-Atlantic Highlands Assessment - combines a number of state, regional, and national
environmental monitoring programs to gauge the current condition and environmental changes
occurring in the mid-Atlantic highlands, an 65,000 square mile area overlapping the Chesapeake
Bay nontidal watershed. When fully developed, it will provide an integrated suite of
environmental assessment tools to link environmental stressors (land use/land cover changes and
other human-caused environmental stress) with biological response (stream and fish communities,
forest ecosystems, etc.). Provides opportunity to leverage outside resources to meet management
information needs and to apply new resources towards gaps identified in the basinwide strategic
monitoring plan.
Contact for parallel effort: Tom Pheiffer
Monitoring Subcommittee designated lead: Joseph Macknis
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Framework Development
National Environmental Monitoring and Research Network: Mid-Atlantic Regional Pilot -
seeks to integrate data and programs across resources, agencies and temporal and spatial scales
through research and monitoring; increase the utility of information obtained through satellites;
coordinate and enhance existing survey and monitoring programs; identify critical regional or
national resources or problems that are not being currently addressed; and establish a network of
environmental index areas that will provide standardized information on major variables that effect
ecosystem processes. The Mid-Atlantic pilot, focusing on the Delaware Bay, Chesapeake Bay
and Albermarle-Pamlico Sound watersheds, has been selected as the first pilot for fast track
implementation of the National Monitoring and Research Network. Provides opportunities to
leverage federal programs and opportunities for new resources to fill gaps identified by the
basinwide monitoring strategy.
Contact for parallel effort: Don Boesch
Monitoring Subcommittee designated lead: Rich Batiuk
FY96 Monitoring Subcommittee Coordinated Atmospheric Deposition Monitoring Budget
Initiative - seeks to assess the current state of wet and dry deposition monitoring in the
Chesapeake Bay region and identify areas for improved data linkage between water monitoring
and air deposition modeling. Identifies ongoing atmospheric monitoring and management
information needs related to atmospheric deposition modeling.
Contact for parallel effort: RickArtz
Monitoring Subcommittee designated lead: RickArtz
FY96 Monitoring Subcommittee Application and Integration of New Technologies Budget
Initiative - evaluates three target technologies to determine the specific management information
needs that these technologies might supply, whether and how the data generated by these
technologies can be managed and brought into a form that can be effectively utilized by the
monitoring program, and the prospects for long term availability of the data. Supports the
planned workshops directed towards evaluating new and innovative technologies to collect
desired monitoring data quicker, cheaper, and better.
Contact for parallel effort: Larry Haas
Monitoring Subcommittee designated lead: Larry Haas
B. Research
USGS Chesapeake Bay Ecosystem Program - a U.S. Geological Survey funded program
directed towards collecting and interpreting appropriate earth science information to help
Chesapeake Bay Program resource managers determine the effectiveness and response of the Bay
ecosystem to progress toward the baywide 40 percent nutrient reduction goal. The primary
objectives of the ecosystem program are: 1) determine the response of water quality and selected
living resources of the Bay watershed and estuary when nutrient and sediment loads are reduced
over several temporal scales; 2) better define and evaluate the responses in water quality and
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U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Chesapeake Bay Program Office
410 Severn Avenue
Annapolis, MD 21403
1-800-YOUR BAY
http://www.epa.gov/r3chespk/
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