The Chesapeake Bay Program’s former Implementation Committee (IC) requested that STAC undertake a review of the Water Quality Model in the summer of 1988. The Terms of Reference provided by the IC included four specific areas of analysis, all related to the utility of the model for management needs. Recognizing the need to engage highly qualified technical experts in the review and the value of involving reviewers who had no previous experience and opinions about the model, STAC chose to form a Model Review Team (MRT) to conduct the primary review and advise STAC of its findings and recommendations. Most of the evaluations of the MRT fell on a core group, which included three eminent scientists with broad experience in the dynamics of estuarine ecosystems and the development and use of numerical models. Dr. Scott Nixon of the University of Rhode Island, an internationally renowned expert on coastal eutrophication, chaired the MRT.
The MRT Report was presented to STAC on December 9, 1999, at which time it was discussed with the MRT chair. STAC herein submits the independent MRT report as presented and offers its own brief analysis of the issues and specific recommendations.