Activities Map

Mapping Partners, Activities, and Resources: The COAST Chesapeake Bay Activities Mapper is a starting place to find out where Federal agencies are conducting research in your area. Click on the link below to access the map viewer. Chesapeake Bay Activities Mapper

Learn more:

• CBP water-quality steering committee
• CBP nutrient subcommittee
• CBP partner organizations
• Watershed organizations and local governments

Prioritize

The decision making component of the Adaptive Management process is where influencing factors to the objective are examined and quantified in order to make a decision about the best action. The prioritize areas component of COAST is the first step in examining influential factors. The next step is to choose and implement actions.

The prioritize areas component of COAST provides CBP partners with tools that aid in selecting areas to enhance management actions. Managers can use this information in conjunction with additional information on local water-quality problems to select areas to enhance actions that will restore and protect water quality in the Bay and local streams.

Priority Mapping

Mapping Priority Areas: Below is a list of COAST decision support tools for selecting priority areas for restoration and preservation. Click on the links below to access individual map viewers. Watershed Contribution Mapper Review the range of nitrogen, phosphorus, or sediment yields to the Bay and tidal rivers. Review information by “source sector” to help identify the major sources of nutrient and sediment in different areas. Begin to select areas to focus management actions based on source sector. Forest Management Mapper Identify areas with high water-quality value Identify forest lands with high water-quality value Assess vulnerability of lands to future population growth Riparian Buffer Mapping Tool

State Resources:

• Maryland iMap
• Virginia Conservation Lands Needs Assessment
• Pennsylvania DEP

Implement

The implement actions component of adaptive-management attempts to identify an optimal suite of practices to improve water quality in a cost-effect manner.

The initial version of COAST provides summaries of management practices and selected CBP watershed model outputs to evaluate alternative management scenarios to help choose the optimal approach to reduce nutrient loads. In the future, the CBP will have a WWW-based interface to allow testing of different nutrient and sediment reduction scenarios. The interface will allow users to explore different scenarios of reducing loads applied to lands by controlling multiple inputs and variables including:

• Best management practices (BMPs) location, type, and efficiencies.
• Animal population locations and numbers.
• Land use using the CBP-specified 25 land-use categories.
• Crop management parameters, such as fertilizer application rates and tillage practices.

Choosing Implementation Actions: Review Activities of the Mid-Atlantic Water Program (MAWP) BMP Project Review MAWP BMP-Efficiency Reports CBP watershed Implementation Plan Tools See current efforts to identify priority BMPs Cost effectiveness strategies for the Bay NRCS “core” practices Virginia Implementation Plan of priority practices Results from CBP watershed model (Phase 4.3) simulations Agriculture Urban