MWMC Data to Decisions Workshop Newsletter
In October 2025, the Maryland Water Monitoring Council Community Science Committee hosted the Data to Decisions: Why Your Data Matter workshop at the UMBC Technology Center in Halethorpe, Maryland. The workshop convened community science monitoring groups alongside state, federal, and nonprofit partners to explore how community-collected data are used in decision-making processes across Maryland and the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Through facilitated discussion and shared examples, participants examined common barriers to data use, including capacity, funding, volunteer support, and navigating data quality expectations, while highlighting successful pathways where community science data inform regulatory reporting, restoration planning, trend analysis, and public communication. This newsletter shares the results of this workshop and provides next steps forward continued improvement of water monitoring across the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
Keywords: Water monitoring, Chesapeake Bay, Maryland Water Monitoring Council, MWMC, Chesapeake Monitoring Cooperative, CMC, citizen science
