The Chesapeake Bay Program’s Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) is administered by the CRC and funded through a cooperative agreement with the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) Partnership – currently spanning the period 2016-2022. The CRC has had a long-standing role of administering all activities of STAC, an active committee with 38 members from academic and scientific institutions around the watershed.
STAC held its first quarterly meeting of FY2017 on June 13-14, 2017 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Annapolis, MD. The meeting focused on the comparison of large waterbody restoration approaches and discussion of upcoming CBP Partnership decisions. STAC will host the second quarterly meeting of FY2017 on September 12-13, 2017 at the Westin Hotel in Annapolis, MD. The meeting theme is “integrating ecological and social sciences.”
STAC reports annually to the Chesapeake Bay Program’s Executive Council. The 2017 Executive Council meeting was held on Thursday, June 8, 2017 at the Maryland State House in Annapolis, MD. The STAC 2017 Annual Executive Council Report describes how STAC’s activities support the Partnership’s commitment to evidence-based policy and effective management.
STAC published two workshop and three review reports since the last CRC newsletter:
Review of Boat Wake Wave Impacts on Shoreline Erosion and Potential Solutions for the Chesapeake Bay – review report published May 12, 2017- Integrating and Leveraging Monitoring Networks to Support the Assessment of Outcomes in the New Bay Agreement – workshop report published July 6, 2017
- Cracking the WIP: Designing an Optimization Engine to Guide Efficient Bay Implementation – workshop report published July 6, 2017
- STAC Criteria Addendum Review: Ambient Water Quality Criteria for Dissolved Oxygen, Water Clarity and Chlorophyll a for the Chesapeake Bay and Its Tidal Tributaries: 2017 Technical Addendum – review report published July 19, 2017
- Follow-up Review: Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee Peer Review of Revised Proposal for James River Chlorophyll-a Criteria – review report published August 4, 2017
For more information regarding recently published and upcoming STAC workshop reports, visit the STAC past workshop webpage. STAC hosted four workshops in FY2016 and will be hosting six workshops in FY2017. The FY2016 workshop steering committees are in the process of drafting activity reports and other workshop outcomes that will be distributed to the Partnership over the next few months. Information regarding recent and upcoming STAC workshops is posted when available on the STAC current workshop homepage.
STAC has three review activities currently in progress: 1) Phase 6 Chesapeake Bay Watershed Model, 2) Chesapeake Bay Water Quality/Sediment Transport Model (WQSTM), and 3) CBP Partnership’s Climate Change Assessment Framework and Programmatic Integration and Response Efforts. These STAC-sponsored independent peer reviews will help inform the Partnership’s 2017 Midpoint Assessment. For more information regarding recently published STAC review reports and ongoing reviews, visit the STAC review webpage.