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.