Chesapeake Bay - Report Card:
This report card provides a transparent, timely, and geographically detailed annual assessment of 2010 Chesapeake Bay health. It rates 15 reporting regions of the Bay using six indicators that are combined into a single overarching index of health. This website enables you to explore the report card via the 15 Bay regions, by the indicators and indices, and as an overview of 2010 Bay health.
Move your mouse over the following icons to link to the information you would like to access.
Region Summaries
2010 Report Card Overview
Indicators and Indices
A report card is released each year providing an assessment of the previous year's health. Health is defined as progress of the six indicators towards established scientifically derived ecological thresholds or goals. A low score therefore means that the region rarely meets the ecological threshold levels. A high score means that the region often meets the threshold levels.
If you would like to receive updates and future report cards, sign-up to the EcoCheck/Integration and Application Network mailing list.
Acknowledgements
The data and methods underpinning this report card represent the collective effort of many individuals and organizations working within the Chesapeake Bay scientific and management community. The following organizations are acknowledged for their significant contributions to the development of the report card: Chesapeake Bay Program, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Versar Incorporated, US Environmental Protection Agency, Maryland Department of the Environment, Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin, Old Dominion University, Morgan State University, and U.S. Geological Survey.
While acknowledging the critical role of these organizations in generating, analyzing, and reviewing the data, the Integration and Application Network, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science and EcoCheck (NOAA-UMCES Partnership)are responsible for the report card release.
The EcoCheck report card has three main sections: Overview, Region Summaries, and Indicators/Indices.
Click the next (>>) button above to get a guided tour of some of the key features of the report card card website.
This map shows the Health Index grades for all the reporting regions, but mousing over each region also provides a text summary and clicking will direct the user to the region summary page with more details about the health of that region.
The region rankings table provides an easy way to visualize the Water Quality Index (WQI), Biotic Index (BI), and overall Bay Health Index (BHI) for all regions. Once again, mousing over provides extra information - try it yourself and see what is displayed. Region names, and indicator icons also serve as navigation links.
The comparison graph allow users to compare the current report card to previous year's scores. Mousing over provides actual percentages and bars provide a direct link to the region's summary page.
Now you're at the region summary page for the Overall Bay. This page details the scores for all the individual indicators, as well as a dynamically generated conceptual diagram (please scroll down the page to view). Even this diagram has more information onmouseover, and has direct links to the detailed indicator pages. There is also a vector (SVG) version of the diagram available for download so you can edit this in your favorite illustration software.
The trends graph shows all the indicators and indices for the selected region since 1986. You can dynamically turn on and off each of the indicators to show only the data you are most interested in. Mousing over the graph shows percentage scores and you can zoom in for finer detail in certain time periods. There is also a fully editable vector (SVG) version of the graph available for download, along with an Excel spreadsheet of the data.
This is the threshold map for Chlorophyll a. This map is zoomable and panable and also available in fully editable vector (SVG) and JPG versions.
The trends graph on the indicator pages shows the indicator and indices data for each region since 1986. By default, only the Overall Bay region is displayed, but you can turn on as many of the other regions as you wish.
The watershed stream health page has several tabs, but the key one is the interactive Google maps version of the data.
Please wait while the map loads and then test out the ratings toggle options and the "zoom to area" functionality (click on the magnifying glass and then click and drag to select the are to zoom to).
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