Abstract

Leveraging GeoDesign for Place-based Conservation and Restoration Assessments
Track: GeoDesign
Authors: John Wolf, Andy Fitch

The Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) Partnership uses geospatial tools to help guide and evaluate decisions on the suitability of a variety of best management practices (BMPs) to reduce nutrient loadings throughout the Bay Watershed. The focus of these evaluations has, for the most part, been to consider alternative land use and BMP implementation scenarios at aggregate spatial scales (counties, watersheds, etc.) as opposed to the scale at which management decisions are often made (e.g. - an individual parcel or tract of land).

The Chesapeake Bay Geodesign prototype demonstrates how ArcGIS Server and related technologies can be leveraged to evaluate the effectiveness of BMPs on a project-by-project basis to anyone with access to a web browser. A prototype tool for project assessment will be demonstrated through business use cases including implementation grant reviews, management scenario evaluations, and the implications of land use changes at a local scale.