The Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) is applying approaches of a specific kind of structured decision making called adaptive-management to improve both the operation of the program and meeting restoration goals of the Executive Order. The CBP is adopting an adaptive-management system to improve the strategic and operational activities of the CBP partnership. Ecologically-based adaptive-management principles, based on the Department of Interior Technical Guide are being used in COAST to address restoration and protection of the ecosystem.
A goal of ecosystem-based adaptive management is to have a science-based, structured decision process to plan, implement, monitor, evaluate, and adapt management actions as more is learned about the effects of management actions and environmental conditions on the ecosystem. There are limited funds to improve the condition of the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem. Therefore, the COAST adaptive-management framework for water quality addresses the CBP partner needs to:
- Focus on different sources of nutrients and sediment (agriculture, suburban/urban lands, and waste-water discharge).
- Identify geographic areas where management actions should be enhanced to address these sources.
- Prioritize what management actions should be enhanced and accelerated based on maximum ecological and cost benefit.
Learn More:
COAST Resources:
Assess Problem
The Chesapeake Bay Partnership is a comprehensive cooperative effort between Federal, State, and local governments, non-governmental agencies, and academic institutions to restore and protect the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed. Federal agencies in the partnership were tasked in 2010 to create an action plan as a response to President Obama's Executive Order (EO). The EO Action Plan is organized into four goal areas (water quality, habitat, fish and wildlife and land and public access) and four supporting strategy sections (citizen stewardship, environmental markets, climate change and science). Each section of the Action Plan describes specific activities, lead agencies and completion dates for each goal Topic.
Actions:
- Find the EO Action Plan goal that most closely matches your management objective and learn about specific activities, lead agencies and completion dates.
- Go to ChesapeakeStat and review current progress toward meeting Bay goals, strategies, and how we spend resources.
- Go to Bay Barometer Maps and learn about the state of the Chesapeake Bay Ecosystem.
Design and Implement
Designing a solution to a management action or planning for that action involves researching the following components:
- Stakeholder needs
- Current activities and potential partners
- Recommended objectives and strategies
- Prioritizing influencing factors to the management objective
The implement actions component of adaptive-management attempts to identify an optimal suite of practices to improve water quality in a cost-effect manner.
Actions:
- Find current activities and potential partners
- Prioritize objectives using the following tools and datasets
- Best practices for implementation
Monitor
Use monitoring information and indicators to assess progress toward environmental goals or implement your own evaluation program to monitor and assess the implementation of actions and water-quality change in your geographic area of interest.
Actions:
Evaluate and Adjust
Evaluate the factors affecting management practices and water-quality change and then adjust your actions in order to have more effective management actions in the future. Here is a general list of the major factors known to affect water quality:
- Population and land-use change.
- Implementation of management actions.
- River flow variability and climate change.
- Watershed process that influence the lag time between management actions and ecosystem response.
Actions:
U.S. Department of the Interior |
U.S. Geological Survey
