Issue

Coastal managers in Maryland, looking to improve their efforts to restore and conserve the Chesapeake Bay, are using methods learned in the GIS Tools for Strategic Conservation Planning course to implement a new approach—a focus on green infrastructure.

Process

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has for many years used a green infrastructure approach to help guide its land targeting and conservation efforts throughout the state’s lands. Staff members mapped the state’s ecological network using a GIS and identified land with important characteristics of ecology and biodiversity. This information allowed the state to focus efforts on preserving the natural foundation that supports diverse plant and animal populations and valuable natural processes, such as water filtering and the cleaning of air.

More recently, the Maryland DNR’s Chesapeake and Coastal Program expanded the existing statewide green infrastructure program to the coast to better incorporate aquatic priorities near tidal waters of the Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays and their tributaries. By utilizing a similar approach and green infrastructure concepts, this “blue infrastructure” approach uses GIS to map and assess nearshore resources and habitat. This includes habitats and resources such as submerged aquatic vegetation, oyster bars, tidal wetlands, fish spawning and nursery areas, and shoreline buffers. The goal is to expand the interconnected natural resource network while at the same time helping to preserve coastal habitats that protect coastal communities from storm surge, erosion, and sea level rise.

Impact

The green and blue infrastructure data have been incorporated into Maryland’s Coastal Atlas and GreenPrint land conservation targeting system, where it contributes to the best-of-the-best land acquisition priorities for the state’s conservation dollars. The data are used to review all coastal properties proposed for state acquisition. A recent Coastal and Estuarine Land Conservation Program project at Ayers Creek was purchased in part because of the high rank it received through the blue infrastructure data.