Quality Assurance

Our Quality Assurance program ensures the accuracy of environmental data sets, including pollutants, water quality, land use, algae, fish, crabs and submerged aquatic vegetation.

A woman holds a refractometer up to her eye.
Michelle Koehler of Living Classrooms Foundation demonstrates how to use a refractometer to measure salinity while teaching fourth grade students from Federal Hill Preparatory School about water quality. (Will Parson/Chesapeake Bay Program)

Protection and restoration efforts within the Chesapeake Bay watershed are based on environmental data—measurements of pollutants, water quality, land use, algae, fish, crabs and submerged aquatic vegetation. Scientists, researchers and policy makers must be able to trust the accuracy of the data they use for evaluating and managing these natural resources. To ensure this accuracy, the Chesapeake Bay Program maintains a Quality Assurance Program in which data from over 40 agencies and research institutions are determined to be scientifically valid and comparable among researchers working in all parts of the watershed.