Evaluation of Multiple Shallow Water Systems Analysis

Scope and Purpose

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Chesapeake Bay Program Office (CBPO) is working with principal investigators (PIs) to provide the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) partners with proposals for the application of shallow-water models to improve Chesapeake Bay shallow-water simulations of dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll a, suspended solids, and water clarity in order to better understand the impacts of alternative management strategies on water quality and living resources in the tidal Chesapeake Bay. The RFPs cover the evaluation of the multiple, developed shallow-water models. Over the course of the two-year project, multiple modeling teams will be funded to apply different shallow-water models using common forcing conditions over a three– to five–year-base-case run at specified shallow-water sites. EPA will also fund an independent model evaluation team that will use state-of-the-art metrics to assess the relative skill of these shallow-water models based on available CBP water quality and submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) monitoring data. The independent model evaluation team will also compare the results from a series of nutrient and sediment change scenarios and analyze causes and impacts of differences among the shallow-water models.

The CBP partners include federal agencies, the seven Chesapeake Bay watershed jurisdictions, and many non-federal organizations; however, work funded under this RFP will support the seven watershed jurisdictions and other non-federal partners. The seven watershed jurisdictions are Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia.