USGS Chesapeake Bay Activities COAST

This component of COAST provides a process and information to help decision makers evaluate the factors affecting implementation of management practices and water-quality change to adopt more effective management actions in the future. There is general information about the major factors affecting 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.

However, more detailed information will be needed to evaluate these factors at more local scales.

Water Quality

Evaluate Change to Adjust Actions:

Identify and evaluate factors affecting progress toward implement of management practices.
Evaluate relation between implementation of practices and factors affecting water-quality changes.
Links to Information on Evaluating the Effectiveness of Implementation Practices

Learn about the potential lag time between implementing management actions and water-quality response.
Review information on pressures affecting the Bay ecosystem.
STAC publication on understanding the lag time between management practices and water quality.
USGS factsheet on ground water influences on nitrogen.
Decide on adjustments needed to improve implementation of planned practices.
Determine if new practices need to be considered. If so, go back to the COAST component: "Choose and implement practices" to consider alternatives.
Determine if additional changes need to be made to management objectives and strategies.

Learn More:

Pressures affecting the Bay

USGS Circular: Synthesis of Chesapeake Bay Science and Implications for Ecosystem Management

Case Study Watersheds

The Chesapeake Bay is one of the regional study areas in the USGS national Priority Ecosystems Science (PES) project. The PES project seeks to understand the natural and anthropogenic factors affecting watershed ecosystems and provide science in support of adaptive management. Within the Chesapeake Bay study area there are five case study watersheds. You can use results and information from these case study projects to better understand environmental factors effecting the progress of your own local watershed. Listed below are the PES case study watersheds.

Clarksburg, MD - Urban Storm Water Management

Key Words: Piedmont, urban storm water, best management practices, runoff
Abstract: The Clarksburg Special Protection Area (CSPA) is located in Montgomery County, Md. The CSPA is undergoing rapid conversion from primarily agricultural and forested land to residential development, but has a goal of protecting the high quality streams in the area using BMP design. Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) have partnered with local, academic, and other Federal agency scientists to better understand the effectiveness of different stormwater management systems with respect to Chesapeake Bay health. Management of stormwater runoff is necessary in urban areas to address flooding and water quality concerns. Improving our understanding of what stormwater management actions may be best suited for different types of developed areas could help protect the environmental health of downstream water bodies that ultimately receive runoff from urban landscapes.
Publications:

USGS Fact Sheet 2008-3101

Results: Forthcoming
Principle Contact: Dianna Hogan, USGS

Difficult Run, VA - Floodplain Study

Key Words: Piedmont, urban developed, riparian stream buffers, retention, erosion, sediment, nitrogen, phosphorus, transport
Abstract: The Difficult Run watershed is located in Fairfax County, VA. Our goal is to characterize the sediment and nutrient retention functions of floodplains in a Piedmont and developed watershed of the Chesapeake Bay. We have the specific objective of creating sediment, organic matter, N, and P budgets for a coupled stream-floodplain ecosystem. We are measuring sediment and associated nutrient accumulation, erosion, and cycling processes to better understand the role of riparian ecosystems in retaining river pollutant loads. Central to this approach is a better quantification of the interaction between sediment, nutrients, and vegetation. We are also studying how the water quality improvement ecosystem service performed by riparian ecosystems may negatively impact riparian habitat quality.
Publications:

Forthcoming

Related Publications:

Results: Forthcoming
Principle Contact: Greg Noe, USGS

Linganore, MD - Sediment Transport

Key Words: Piedmont, agricultural, land use, sediment fingerprinting, phosphorus, sediment, transport, deposition, reservior
Abstract: The Linganore study area is part of the Lower Monocacy River watershed located in Frederick County, MD. The study area includes Lake Linganore which is used as part of the water supply for Frederick County. The goal of the project is to assess sediment transport and deposition in the watershed in order to reduce sediment and phosphorous loadings to the reservior. To accomplish this task the USGS is conducting a 3-step approach: (1) Identify the significant sources of sediment and phosphorous to Lake Linganore, (2) Develop and implement plans to reduce sediment and phosphorous to Lake Linganore, (3) Monitor the effectiveness of actions in reducing sediment and phosphorous.
Publications:

Forthcoming

Results: Forthcoming
Principle Contact: Allen Gellis, USGS