A major priority of the Delaware Reserve is to coordinate, facilitate and conduct management-oriented research, which will provide information useful for local, regional and national coastal management decision making. The creation of permanent field sites for management-oriented research is an important step towards a more comprehensive and integrated program of research, monitoring and management.

The Delaware Reserve's two components expand researchers' opportunities to perform long-term studies in representative ecological zones of the Delaware Estuary. The components provide the opportunity to observe and explain basic functions of, and changes in, the natural systems, and apply this information to other estuarine systems along the mid-Atlantic coast. These areas will be managed in part to maintain their relatively undisturbed character to serve as controls to compare with other areas outside the reserve, and in part may be modified or manipulated to accommodate research needs and maximize their research utility.

The goals of the Research Reserve's environmental research and monitoring program are to:

• Establish and manage key (core) areas of the reserve for long-term use as outdoor field laboratories, maintained for such purpose by the help of buffer areas.
• Coordinate research projects with other research efforts in the Delaware Estuary and Delaware's Inland Bays to streamline scientific efforts, maximize efficient use of resources and funds and avoid unnecessary duplication of efforts.
• Enhance scientific understanding of estuarine ecosystem processes and functions to enable better identification of management issues and response options.
• Gather and make available information needed by reserve managers and coastal decision makers for improved understanding and management of estuarine ecosystems.
• To better our understanding of ecological values and processes of estuaries nationwide, by comparing the Delaware Estuary to other estuarine areas.
• Identify priority natural resources, gather baseline information on them and establish indicators of change.
• Identify priority habitat management needs, gather information about how to best meet the needs and provide technical guidance to implement the desired actions.
• Monitor the impacts of human stresses on the estuarine environment and the effectiveness of pollution control strategies.
• To better our understanding of human exploitation of the estuarine environment through time.
• Identify critical habitat requirements of living natural resources.
• Evaluate land use practices and management strategies in terms of their impacts and effectiveness.
• Publication of research results.