NOAA Research Consortium Delivers New Reports
The Mid-Atlantic Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments (MARISA) recently published a summary of Chesapeake Bay Climate Impacts for the fall season of 2018. MARISA is a consortium of research organizations, led by the nonprofit RAND Corporation and funded by a 5-year grant from NOAA. As stated on its website, its mission is to “help communities in the Mid-Atlantic region become more resilient to a changing climate through improved data, place-based decision support, and public engagement.” RAND’s partners on MARISA include scientists from Penn State University (PSU), Johns Hopkins University (JHU), and Cornell University. MARISA’s focus is on ensuring that communities in the Mid-Atlantic region are gaining access to climate data and related scientific expertise in forms that are understandable, usable, and solution-oriented.
In MARISA’s first publication in 2017, Resilience to a Changing Climate in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, the team synthesized its findings on regional and community-based information needs and opportunities for adaptation gathered from interviews with government officials, managers, transportation professionals, utility officials, conservationists, hydrologists, and other stakeholders. “The MARISA team thought it was important to start by talking to people and figuring out what is needed,” explained Krista Romita Grocholski, Program Manager. They found that changing seasonal and spatial patterns of temperature and precipitation were already affecting travel, land, and water management. For example, extreme heat can weaken the physical integrity of rail lines, flooding of roadways can disrupt travel and commerce, and water-side structures are increasingly vulnerable to sea level rise. Their report suggested regional priorities for advancing adaptation and resilience measures and identified gaps in community-level understanding of how best to choose among different courses of action. “We got our marching orders from that report,” said Romita Grocholski.
The aforementioned Chesapeake Bay Climate Impacts Summary and Outlook for the fall of 2018 highlights significant weather events, seasonal temperatures and precipitation, seasonal outlook on hurricanes, droughts, and El Niños. It also includes a new Interactive Chesapeake Bay Watershed Precipitation Data Tool. This first issue of the Climate Summary noted the above average heat throughout the summer months and heightened frequency of large rainfall events and flash flooding in many parts of the watershed.
The MARISA team hopes to publish the Climate Summary on a seasonal basis to provide stakeholders with the most current information. Each issue will aim to put significant weather events in context and explain trends and projections of key climate indicators. Future summaries will also make it easy to download the data underlying the web-based graphics. “Ideally, these summaries will provide community planners, local officials, and other stakeholders with usable information,” explained Romita Grocholski. She is in frequent contact with stakeholders throughout the region via emails, phone calls, and webinars to seek feedback and improve MARISA’s outreach.
MARISA, now in its third year of its 5-year grant, has other initiatives underway. For example, MARISA has developed an inventory of the wide array of mathematical models pertaining to the physical, chemical, and biological conditions of the Chesapeake Bay. This model inventory tool, to be published on the web in the spring, should be especially useful to scientists and resource managers in guiding their choice of models to support their work.