Technical Review of the Chesapeake Bay Program's Basinwide Monitoring Program

The Chesapeake Bay Basinwide Monitoring Strategy represented the culmination of a multi-year effort by the CBP to develop and implement coordinated monitoring networks throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed. This Strategy was a shift from the then-present monitoring process by which different committees independently fund and coordinate monitoring for various components of the system (e.g., nutrients, plankton, and toxic chemicals). The Strategy established program-wide monitoring priorities to conduct ?ecosystem management? of the Bay and more effective utilizes the limited resources and time available for monitoring. Volume I of the Monitoring Strategy identified the information needs of the CBP and defined frameworks for the collection and interpretation of the necessary monitoring data. Upon the release of a draft of the Chesapeake Bay Basinwide Monitoring Strategy Volume I, the CBP?s former Implementation Committee and Monitoring Subcommittee requested that STAC convene an external technical review of the report. The primary objective of the review was to determine the efficacy of the proposed program and to assist in improving the existing monitoring program so that it better assesses the environmental health of the Bay. The review panel was also asked to provide recommendations to conduct ‘ecosystem management’ within the Chesapeake Bay watershed. An Expert Panel of scientists from outside the CBP was selected whose expertise encompassed land use, fisheries, chemical contaminants, water quality, hydrology, ecosystem modeling, and other ecosystem processes.