The Chesapeake Community Model Program (CCMP) was conceived in workshop meetings in 2000 “to provide the scientific foundation for the next generation of coupled estuarine circulation/ecology models, which in turn is needed to support water quality managers and decision makers in the public policy sphere, and a wide spectrum of research and educational activities. The CCMP will advance Chesapeake modeling research by connecting and distributing the existing suite of Chesapeake Bay and Watershed research models into a useful community property. An independent home for the program was created in the Chesapeake Research Consortium (CRC) to provide unbiased access to modeling methods, data, and computing resources for the suite of community models. Scientists from CRC member institutions, government, and other agencies have donated their time and intellectual capital to the effort. The CRC now has on staff a CCMP program manager who reports to an active steering committee comprised of members of regional institutions.

Modeling capabilities extant in the Chesapeake Bay research community include estuarine circulation, nutrient dynamics, plankton ecology, benthic ecology, living resources, and sediment dynamics. In addition, the health of the bay is determined by human activities in the watershed and thus land based modeling activities covering, land use patterns, stream and surface and groundwater hydrology, riverine, wetland and shoreline ecology and biogeochemistry, and airshed deposition will be a part of the Chesapeake Community Modeling Program.

The Chesapeake Community Model Program has been implemented to compile and, via the web, distribute models of the Bay, its watershed, and lands, thereby providing model code for system hydrodynamics, the food web, and surrounding water and airsheds. As a user-friendly resource for the region's research and management communities, these models will offer opportunities not only for expanding research in these areas but addressing impacts of various management decisions on the system and its environs.

• Develop modern Open Source software sharing technology for the Chesapeake modeling community.
• Create a community resource of an accessible suite of tested and well used models of Chesapeake basin and estuary.
• Build interfaces between modeling projects to leverage greater modeling capabilities than individual researchers can maintain.
• Provide access to Chesapeake Bay models to researchers in tangentially related fields.
• Reduce redundant modeling efforts by sharing developed tools.
• Provide useful data sets as test cases for model verification and comparison.
• Provide useful model evaluation, presentation, and dissemination tools for community use.
• Leverage research modeling opportunities by enhanced cooperation and capabilities.
• Develop a new coupled watershed-estuarine research modeling system for the Chesapeake.
• Transition community models to operational status with appropriate partners.

For specific information on the Chesapeake Community Modeling Program, please contact: Thomas F. Gross, Ph.D., CCMP Manager, Chesapeake Research Consortium, 645 Contees Wharf Road, Edgewater, MD 21037, grosst@si.edu or explore our website at http://www.chesapeake.org.