Submerged Aquatic Vegetation (SAV) scientists and managers rely on data collected by volunteers to study SAV and assess conservation and restoration needs. Although various citizen science initiatives currently survey SAV in the Chesapeake Bay, no standardized data collection protocol exists to ensure that all of these initiatives use the same methodology or collect the same data.

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Incorporating novel indicators into the Chesapeake Bay Report Card. Make key improvements to the Chesapeake Bay Report Card, which has served since 2006 as the definitive source for ecosystem health status in the Bay and tidal tributaries.

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This report card was produced in December 2015 by The University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science and represents a joint effort of graduate students and faculty in the Marine Estuarine Environmental Sciences program at the Appalachian Laboratory in Frostburg and the Integration and Application Network. The report card provides an assessment of stream health in the Upper Potomac Headwaters region upstream of Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.

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The Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, Inc. (Alliance) in partnership with the Izaak Walton League of America (League), the Alliance for Aquatic Resource Monitoring (ALLARM) at Dickinson College, and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science Integration and Application Network (UMCES IAN) will provide technical, logistical, and outreach support for the integration of citizen-based and non-traditional monitoring networks into the Chesapeake Bay Program partnership.

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IAN is part of a successful National Science Foundation project underway in New York Harbor as part of the Billion Oyster Project (BOP), aimed at delivering environmental restoration education to New York City public schools.

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The proposed project will expand capacity of local organizations to sustain ecosystem health report cards currently in development, and will design and execute a comprehensive communications and media strategy for report card dissemination and community engagement.

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The main goal of this project is to develop a web-based tool that allows users to explore time series of important bay health indicators, resources and influences. Users would be able to drag a slider across a series of years to see how status changes over time. A carousel of images, conceptual diagram, and videos could scroll through, regardless of where the slider is. Data would also be presented for inputs and overall bay status. An indicator would show what year was being shown.

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For over 30 years, citizen science organizations have been a trusted voice and advocate for the health of tributary watersheds to Chesapeake Bay. By engaging citizens in promoting specific Bay friendly actions, these clean water advocates have hoped to improve Bay water quality. However, no comprehensive assessment had been conducted to establish a baseline of current behaviors or measure behavior change.

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The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation's Long Island Sound Futures Fund has funded IAN to develop the Long Island Sound Ecosystem Health Report Card project. The project will involve developing a report card for the Long Island Sound itself, as well as report cards for Hempstead Harbor in New York and the Westport/Fairfield embayment in Connecticut. IAN will host a series of workshops and the final products will include a printed report card and an interactive website.

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Our goal is to develop a suite of indicators that will reflect resource resilience to impacts related to sea level rise, increased water temperature, changed precipitation patterns, and increased storm intensity and frequency. The suite of indicators will be integrated into the Chesapeake Bay Report Card. We estimate that this process will be achieved over a two-year period and will be an important evolution in the Chesapeake Bay Report Card, and for environmental reporting globally.

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