Climate Monitoring and Assessment Outcome:Logic & Action Plan

Chesapeake Bay Program partners have committed to taking a series of specific actions to support the management approaches guiding this outcome. These actions directly address the factors that could impact our progress. More information about performance targets and participating partners can be found in the complete Logic & Action Plan.

Download Logic & Action Plan (.pdf)

Watershed-Wide Actions

Ongoing

  • Identifying and evaluating the continuity of existing models and monitoring data within federal agencies, state agencies and academic institutions in order to explain climate-related factors of interest (e.g., sea level rise, temperature and precipitation) to the Chesapeake Bay h3partnership at the watershed scale.

January – June 2016

  • Establishing guidance for the application of climate change scenarios, projections and realizations for Chesapeake Bay Program assessments.

July – December 2016

  • Developing and implementing a methodology to establish climate goals and baselines for individual management strategies that support the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement.
  • Informing the approach to factoring climate considerations into the Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load (Bay TMDL) 2017 Midpoint Assessment.
  • Using Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, National Weather Service and other data sets to assess Chesapeake Bay climate sensitivity.

July to December 2017

  • Cataloguing monitoring and modeling gaps for four select management strategies that support the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement.
  • Developing a plan to fill identified gaps.
  • Identifying gap-filling solutions by expanding the Chesapeake Bay Program partnership to include identified ongoing or planned monitoring efforts of climate factors.
  • Conducting a literature review and synthesis of the latest scientific research on past and future climate change impacts on the Chesapeake Bay.
  • Compiling a research agenda to improve our understanding of climate impacts or fill critical data or research gaps.
  • Compiling available data, tools and resources that can be used to support Chesapeake Bay watershed vulnerability assessments.
  • Increasing the availability of and access to climate monitoring and assessment data.

2018

  • Gaining a better understanding of past and future impacts of ocean acidification on Chesapeake Bay waters.
  • Undertaking targeted research to improve our understanding of climate impacts or fill critical data or research gaps.