Coastal SEES (Track 2), Collaborative: Improving Chesapeake Bay water quality by creating sustainable coastal watersheds

沿海水质受周边流域土地利用的控制，在许多沿海地区呈下降趋势。向河口排水的土地从施肥的草坪、化粪池系统和污水处理厂排放污染物（主要是氮、磷和沉积物）。由于农业径流，流入切萨皮克湾的Choptank河和河口的水质正在下降，但污水处理也是营养物质的重要来源。改善水质需要更好地管理耕地和住宅用地，并采用许多最佳管理方法来减少污染物。尽管我们对个别的最佳管理措施如何去除营养物质和其他污染物了解甚多，但最佳管理措施从未在流域规模上进行过测试，以确定它们是否真的改善了接收水的质量。本研究将研究四个Choptank流域的人和土地管理。研究人员将确定对采用最佳管理做法的态度、具体最佳管理做法中减少污染物的机制以及广泛实施后的景观水质。许多政府项目都致力于鼓励采用最佳管理方法来改善水质，但目前还不确定通常采用的最佳管理方法是否能显著减少从流域到河口的污染物通量。Choptank的研究将为在流域尺度上最佳管理实践的有效性提供一个重要的测试，其结果可能适用于其他地方。这个项目将包括对居民、农民、媒体和政府官员的教育，也将包括童子军和4-H组织。这项研究有可能确定有效的最佳管理做法，并在沿海地区创造可持续的农业流域。

Coastal water quality is controlled by land uses in the surrounding watershed and is declining in many coastal regions. The land that drains toward estuaries contributes pollutants (primarily nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment) from fertilized lawns, septic systems, and sewage treatment plants. Water quality in the Choptank River and estuary, which flow into the Chesapeake Bay, is declining because of runoff from agriculture, but sewage disposal is also a contributing source of nutrients. Better management of cultivated and residential land is required to improve water quality, and many best management practices are employed to reduce pollutants. Although we know a great deal about how some individual Best Management Practices remove nutrients and other pollutants, best management practices have never been tested at the watershed scale to determine if they actually improve receiving water quality. This research will study the people and land management of four Choptank watersheds. The researchers will determine the attitudes towards adoption of best management practices, mechanisms of pollutant reduction in specific best management practices, and landscape water quality as a result of widespread implementation. Many government programs are committed to encouraging best management practices to improve water quality, but there is uncertainty whether commonly applied best management practices significantly reduce pollutant fluxes from watersheds to estuaries. The Choptank study will provide an important test of the effectiveness of best management practices at the watershed scale, the results of which can potentially be applied elsewhere. This project will involve education of residents, farmers, the media, and government officials, and will also involve scouts and 4-H organizations. The research has the potential to identify effective best management practices and to create sustainable, agricultural watersheds in the coastal zone.