Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Great Lakes Northern Forest Grant: Mapping Fluvial Landforms in Floodplains for Chesapeake Bay Watershed Model Enhancement

The Chesapeake Bay Program Partners have expressed interest in adding new “land uses” to the proposed Phase 6 watershed model. The list of potential land uses include: riparian areas, wetlands, floodplains, and urban stream corridors. These features are both sources and sinks of nutrients and sediments and both affect and are affected by land uses and management actions in the watershed. Including these features in the Phase 6 model will better represent the effects of Best Management Practices and other restoration actions on nutrient and sediment loads to the Chesapeake Bay. More specifically, the analysis will help inform the transport/routing factors estimated for each river segment and potentially inform the land use sediment delivery ratios estimated within each land-river segment.