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The Chesapeake Bay is North America's largest and most biologically diverse estuary, as well as an important commercial and recreational resource. However, excessive amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment from human activities and land development have disrupted the ecosystem, causing harmful algae blooms, degraded habitats, and diminished populations of many species of fish and shellfish. In 1983, the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) was established, based on a cooperative partnership among the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the state of Maryland, and the commonwealths of Pennsylvania and Virginia, and the District of Columbia, to address the extent, complexity, and sources of pollutants entering the Bay. In 2008, the CBP launched a series of initiatives to increase the transparency of the program and heighten its accountability and in 2009 an executive order injected new energy into the restoration. In addition, as part of the effect to improve the pace of progress and increase accountability in the Bay restoration, a two-year milestone strategy was introduced aimed at reducing overall pollution in the Bay by focusing on incremental, short-term commitments from each of the Bay jurisdictions. The National Research Council (NRC) established the Committee on the Evaluation of Chesapeake Bay Program Implementation for Nutrient Reduction in Improve Water Quality in 2009 in response to a request from the EPA. The committee was charged to assess the framework used by the states and the CBP for tracking nutrient and sediment control practices that are implemented in the Chesapeake Bay watershed and to evaluate the two-year milestone strategy. The committee was also to assess existing adaptive management strategies and to recommend improvements that could help CBP to meet its nutrient and sediment reduction goals. The committee did not attempt to identify every possible strategy that could be implemented but instead focused on approaches that are not being implemented to their full potential or that may have substantial, unrealized potential in the Bay watershed. Because many of these strategies have policy or societal implications that could not be fully evaluated by the committee, the strategies are not prioritized but are offered to encourage further consideration and exploration among the CBP partners and stakeholders.
The technical basis of environmental regulation is always at the edge of scientific and engineering understanding. As knowledge improves, questions will inevitably arise about past decisions. Understanding how the regulatory system accommodates changing scientific and engineering knowledge is vital for achieving environmental values. In this new volume, seven case studies shed light on the interplay between environmental regulation and scientific and engineering understanding, with practical conclusions on how science and engineering should be used for more sound and timely regulatory decision making. The book provides helpful timelines of scientific and regulatory developments for the cases, which include: Factors impeding clean-up strategies in the Chesapeake Bay. Pivotal questions in the regulation of ambient ozone concentrations. How science has been heeded but also ignored in regulation of new municipal waste combustors. Impact of scientific findings on control of chlorination by-products. Acid rain and what can be learned about research and public policy debate. Controversy over the need for formaldehyde regulation. The effect of public perception on management decisions concerning dioxin. This volume will be of practical interest to policymakers, business and environmental advocates, scientists, engineers, researchers, attorneys, faculty, and students.
R. David Simpson Norman L. Christensen, Jr. Human Activity and Ecosystem Function: Reconciling Economics and Ecology Recognizing the need to improve social decision making on tradeoffs between economic growth and ecological health, the Renewable Natural Resources Foundation convened a workshop in October 1995 on "Human Activity and Ecosystem Function: Reconciling Economics and Ecology. " While the subtitle perhaps reflected unrealistic expectations, the presentations and discus sions at the workshop were a preliminary step toward that rec onciliation: bringing together ecologists, economists, other nat ural and social scientists, and policy makers to layout the issues, articulate their needs and perspectives, and identify common ground for further work. This volume contains the pa pers presented and reports generated from the workshop. We emphasize ecology and economics in this discussion. We could argue that organizing our inquiry around these diSCiplines is only natural. Ecology is the study of behavior of organisms within complex systems composed of a myriad of other organ isms and their physical environments. Increasingly, this disci pline has focused on how interactions among biological and physical components influence the overall functioning of ecosys tems. These components are increasingly being determined by viii Ecosystem Function and Human Activities human activities. Economics is the study of how we decide which of our needs and wants we choose to satisfy given our limited re sources.