Chesapeake Healthy Watersheds Assessment 1.0

Description

In 2017, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Healthy Watersheds Program published the results of their Preliminary Healthy Watersheds Assessments (PHWA), a project that brought together nationally consistent data to assess watershed health and vulnerability. The Chesapeake Bay Program's Maintain Healthy Watersheds Goal Implementation Team (HWGIT) agreed that a similar regional assessment utilizing jurisdiction-specific data could address major gaps identified in the Healthy Watersheds Management Strategy. Building on the PHWA framework, HWGIT contracted Tetra Tech to complete a Chesapeake Healthy Watersheds Assessment (CHWA) to help partners identify "signals of change" in vulnerable or resilient healthy waters and watersheds. The final report was published in 2019 and is available here. In order to visualize the results, Innovate!, Inc. developed an application to facilitate exploration of the data. The readily available online, geospatial tool supports and informs management related to watershed health and vulnerability at the catchment scale.