On April 22-23, 2014, the Chesapeake Bay Program’s (CBP) Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) held a workshop to attempt to define, measure, and model the nutrient dynamics from the mosaics of land cover known as pervious land.

The goal of the workshop was to characterize the key source areas and pervious cover types that generate nutrients and/or reduce runoff in the urban landscape and determine whether it is feasible to utilize them in Phase 6 of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Model (CBWM), by answering the following questions:

• Does the source or cover type depart in a meaningful way from the average nutrient loading for generic pervious land?
• If so, are their existing or future mapping tools that can accurately measure the source or cover type at the scale of a county and the entire Bay watershed?
• If so, can the pollutant dynamics of the source or cover type be accurately simulated in the context of existing or future versions of the CBWM?
• If so, would the source or cover type respond in a unique manner to the application of a new or existing urban BMP type?

Based on the answers to the preceding questions, the outcome of the workshop was to analyze current research and recommend the best process to create a scientifically sound pervious land sub-classification system for the purposes of simulating and managing nutrient loads in the Bay watershed.

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