The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Coral Reef Conservation Program (NOAA-CRCP) is investing significant funding to support a National Coral Reef Monitoring Plan (NCRMP) throughout the U.S. Pacific, Atlantic, and Caribbean coral reef areas. The Integration and Application Network at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (IAN-UMCES) understands that a key component of this plan is periodic national-level status and trends reporting.

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The primary objective of this project is to collate data, review indicators, and synthesize both to effectively report the health of the Georgia coastal zone in a report card. An ecosystem health report card approach synthesizes environmental data, so that citizens and decision makers can evaluate the overall effects of restoration, conservation, and management activities on water quality and ecosystem condition.

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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 South Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative (South Atlantic LCC) is a partnership of federal, state, and private organizations dedicated to conserving a landscape capable of sustaining the nation’s natural and cultural resources for current and future generations. The primary objective of this project is to develop a short synthesis report assessing 11 habitats, using a variety of ecological indicators.

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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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The primary objective of this project is to collate data, review indicators and synthesize both to effectively report the health of Mills Creek. Mills Creek is a small tributary to Sandusky Bay on the south-central shore of Lake Erie. The Mills Creek watershed is largely developed by a combination of urban and agricultural land uses.

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In 2009, Governor Martin O’Malley and Maryland’s General Assembly charged the State with developing a Greenhouse Gas Reduction Plan that will reduce greenhouse gases 25 percent below a 2006 baseline level by the year 2020. This report provides a detailed overview of Maryland’s Plan, describing Maryland’s vulnerability to climate change and detailing Maryland’s 150-plus Greenhouse Gas Reduction programs and initiatives and their associated benefits.

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