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

沿海水质受到周围流域土地使用的控制，在许多沿海地区，水质正在下降。向河口排水的土地贡献了来自施肥草坪、化粪池系统和污水处理厂的污染物（主要是氮、磷和沉积物）。由于农业径流，流入切萨皮克湾的乔普坦克河和河口的水质正在下降，但污水处理也是营养物质的一个贡献来源。 需要更好地管理耕地和住宅用地，以改善水质，并采用许多最佳管理做法来减少污染物。尽管我们对一些最佳管理实践如何去除营养物质和其他污染物有很多了解，但最佳管理实践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质。这项研究将研究四个Choptank流域的人和土地管理。研究人员将确定对采用最佳管理实践的态度，具体的最佳管理实践中的污染物减少机制，以及广泛实施后的景观水质。许多政府计划致力于鼓励最佳管理实践，以改善水质，但有不确定性，是否普遍适用的最佳管理实践显着减少污染物通量从流域到河口。Choptank研究将对流域范围内最佳管理做法的有效性进行重要检验，其结果有可能应用于其他地方。该项目将涉及对居民、农民、媒体和政府官员的教育，还将涉及童子军和4-H组织。这项研究有可能确定有效的最佳管理做法，并在沿海地区建立可持续的农业流域。

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.