Managing Marine Ecosystems and Development: the Chesapeake Bay Experience

The Chesapeake Bay has been an important test bed for large-scale coastal ecosystem restoration and management. Science has played a key role but faces major new challenges as there is a need to make more reliable predictions of future conditions in the face of continued human development in the region. Reconstruction of a modern environmental history of the bay provides a useful prologue for prediction of the future. However, effective assessments of future conditions require greater integration of environmental research, modeling and monitoring. Furthermore, in order to be an effective guide for sustainable development, such coastal science assessments must be integrated with predictions of societal change, landscape dynamics, and technological improvements.