The principal objective of the basinwide monitoring strategy is to provide a comprehensive framework for a basinwide, coordinated, and integrated monitoring program that targets, supports, and guides Chesapeake Bay restoration and protection management actions. The resultant basinwide Monitoring Program must respond to specific concerns important to decision makers and the public across all environmental media including air deposition, living resources, surface and ground water quality, and the coastal ocean. The process for development of the strategy focuses on four key elements; building on the extensive network of monitoring programs throughout the Bay watershed; focusing on addressing Chesapeake Bay Program monitoring related management decision making questions; taking advantage of a series of parallel efforts within and outside the Chesapeake Bay Program; and using a series of structured technical workshops through which existing monitoring programs will be compared with the management information needs and questions within the context of a larger 'ideal' monitoring framework. The strategy development process will also include a series of workshops designed to increase cooperation, coordination, and the value of each other's monitoring activities among non-Chesapeake Bay Program monitoring agencies. Three workshops will focus on examining new technologies and evaluating new monitoring approaches. A synthesis workshop is scheduled for the spring 1998 for seeking Bay community commitment to the basinwide strategy.

"November 1996." "EPA 903-R-96-014"--Cover.