(Photo by Will Parson/Chesapeake Bay Program)

The Chesapeake Community Modeling Program (CCMP) is an association of researchers throughout the Chesapeake Bay Basin who work together to further the development of watershed and estuarine modeling.

The Chesapeake Community Modeling Program (CCMP) is a long-term collaborative effort between the Chesapeake Research Consortium (CRC), the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science – Horn Point Laboratory (UMCES-HPL), and the NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office, that is dedicated to advancing the cause of accessible, open-source environmental models of the Chesapeake Bay in support of research and management efforts.  As a complementary activity to the CBP modeling effort, and with support from CRC member institutions and the NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office (NCBO), the CCMP seeks to improve modeling tools and related research and resources specific to the Chesapeake Bay, its watershed, and connected environmental systems by fostering collaborative open source research, model development and communication.

Modeling capabilities extant in the Chesapeake Bay research community include estuarine circulation, nutrient dynamics, plankton ecology, benthic ecology, living resources, and sediment dynamics. In addition, the health of the bay is determined by human activities in the watershed and thus land based modeling activities covering, land use patterns, stream and surface and groundwater hydrology, riverine, wetland and shoreline ecology and biogeochemistry, and airshed deposition. The CCMP seeks to improve all of these modeling tools and increase their transparency through promotion of open-source modeling approaches.

The CCMP is also committed to shedding light on emerging concerns and conflicts as they relate to regulatory thresholds and the environmental models that are used to set them, focusing on topics such as understanding, communication, and credibility.  By bringing together regional modelers with other scientists (i.e. those more principally involved in experimental research and environmental monitoring), managers and other stakeholders at meetings and workshops the CCMP strives to highlight the unique issues and concerns of each of these groups and provide a venue for open dialogue that will hopefully lead to greater understanding of these issues toward improved science and modeling. In this context, the NCBO, CRC, and CCMP are proud to have sponsored and organized a series of region-wide biennial symposiums focused on Chesapeake Bay community modeling and research since 2008.  The next symposium (for 2020) is currently in the planning stage.

Goals of the CCMP

  • Foster communication between the research and management modeling communities by convening biennial symposia and periodic special workshops, and through the publication of community newsletters.
  • Promote the use of modern open-source software and other means of sharing technology for the Chesapeake modeling community.
  • Create a community resource of an accessible suite of tested and well-used models of the Chesapeake basin and estuary.
  • Promote the adoption of modern modular modeling approaches in research and management modeling efforts.
  • Build interfaces between modeling projects to leverage greater modeling capabilities than individual researchers can maintain.
  • Provide access to Chesapeake Bay models to researchers in tangentially related fields.
  • Leverage research modeling opportunities by enhanced cooperation and capabilities.

For specific information on the Chesapeake Community Modeling Program, please contact: David Jasinski, CCMP Program Manager, Chesapeake Research Consortium, 645 Contees Wharf Road, Edgewater, MD 21037, dave@chesapeakedata.com or explore our website.