Publications

The workshop convened technical and management personnel to consider pathways to achieve the aforementioned goals. Acquiring CSI at no cost is an option under the NextView License agreement between the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and Maxar (previously DigitalGlobe, Inc). The NextView License was developed by the NGA to accommodate United States Government (USG) agencies, contractors, partners, and other entities that require CSI to support USG interests. The basic premise of the agreement is that any federal agency that requires satellite imagery from contracted commercial sources can request and obtain said imagery at no cost to the local agency. As 2017 updates to the Water Resource Development Act, which amends Section 117 of the Clean Water Act, called for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to carry out an annual SAV survey in Chesapeake Bay. This makes it theoretically feasible for the EPA to now request and obtain the high-resolution CSI necessary for the annual SAV assessment.

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Shoreline alterations in the Chesapeake Bay have led to a loss of native tidal and shallow water habitats throughout the waterways of the Bay. Efforts to reduce the proliferation of shoreline hardening through the use of Living Shorelines and similar restoration practices have slowed the loss of native habitats, but do not address areas that have already been hardened. Green Riprap is a low cost, simple restoration technique to improve the water quality, habitat, and aesthetics of shorelines previously hardened with rock revetments by planting marsh vegetation in the voids between riprap rocks. However, Green Riprap techniques are new to the Chesapeake Bay and before widespread use is encouraged, a synthesis of the science and identification of research gaps are needed. This workshop was developed to provide the foundation to evaluate the state of the science on Green Riprap and its potential for providing enhanced water quality, increased near shore biodiversity, and improved aesthetic functions of previously hardened tidal shorelines.

The workshop brought together scientists, practitioners, and NGOs to share aspects of shoreline systems that Green Riprap could contribute to and elucidate the best practices for their construction. The workshop was a single-day online meeting with an optional field trip to example Green Riprap projects. The workshop convened experts from multiple disciplines to evaluate the state of the science for Green Riprap, including estuarine scientists that study tidal wetlands and tidal shorelines, shoreline engineers, physical modelers, and social scientists. Several Green Riprap projects built by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other groups were shared through talks, a virtual field trip, and an in-person field trip. The talks were followed by discussion on the next steps forward. Results were a prioritized list of research questions related to: site criteria; plant species most effective for Green Riprap use; water quality criteria that could be used to assess project success; ecological benefits, including increased biodiversity; and social benefits, including increased recreational/aesthetic values made possible by Green Riprap habitats.

Key recommendations from the workshop include:

1. Additional research to help understand both the best design of these shorelines and their benefits;
2. Increased visibility of the technique through the creation of public pilot projects; and
3. Additional outreach to all the involved parties, including property owners, contractors, and regulators to ensure clear definitions and that the projects are sited and designed correctly.

Potential partners for addressing these recommendations include the Chesapeake Bay Program’s Wetland and Fish Habitat Workgroups and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

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“Ecosystem services” are the benefits ecosystems provide to people. These benefits include providing food, clean air, clean water, recreation, and many other explicit or intrinsic values to people and communities. Investments in Chesapeake Bay restoration are typically designed to improve water quality, given the legal requirements of the Clean Water Act. The Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement sets goals that encompass a wide range of ecosystem services. A narrow focus on water quality can result in the implementation of practices and policies that maximize nutrient and sediment reductions at the expense of feasible alternatives that offer greater ecosystem services or multiple benefits to living resources and communities.

This workshop was designed to gather input from a diverse array of stakeholders to help shape a coherent framework to identify impactful and durable ways to embed ecosystem services considerations in decision-making. This framework is critical to drive change for both the Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) and for multiple lagging outcomes in the 2014 Watershed Agreement that provide ecosystem service benefits beyond water quality. As jurisdictions are doubling down on their efforts to meet the TMDL 2025 target date and large investments are being made in environmental restoration and conservation, there is an opportunity to work strategically to achieve a broader set of goals for ecosystems and communities.

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The workshop, “Using Local Monitoring Results to Inform the Chesapeake Bay Program’s Watershed Model”, was held in March 2023 to provide insight on the scope of local water quality monitoring efforts within and outside of the Bay watershed that could be used to inform the CBWM. Scientists and managers developed recommendations that could be used by modelers for either calibration or knowledge generation to inform the Phase 7 version of the CBWM currently under development for a 2028 decision by the CBP, recommendations for how local monitoring efforts could be designed or altered to better inform the CBWM, and recommendations for how monitored trends could be used in management. The preliminary presentations for the workshop provided essential background information on the CBWM and data used to parameterize it. This information was the foundation for discussions on existing data gaps, the importance of current local monitoring networks, and best practices for developing future monitoring networks.

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As solar energy becomes a lower cost and more efficient source of renewable energy, major utility-scale solar panel installations, or solar farms, are being proposed and installed around the Mid-Atlantic region. These solar farms constitute a major land transformation. This transformation is particularly of interest because there can be substantial alteration of land characteristics in the development process, and solar farms also create a unique land cover with impervious surface over pervious surface, generating potential changes in hydrologic and water quality processes. There is currently wide variability in guidance and understanding of best practices relating to the land development and management of solar farms in the Chesapeake Bay region. Thus, a STAC-led workshop gathered speakers and participants from universities, industry, non-governmental organizations, and multiple levels of government across the Chesapeake Bay watershed to address the following questions in April 2023:

1. What is the state of science on how solar farms impact hydrology and water quality under a range of site and management conditions and project scales?
2. What are current best management practices and policies, and where in our region are there opportunities for improving recommendations and/or policies?
3. What are the key gaps with respect to research needs to better answer understand the implications of utility scale solar development.

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