monitoring data into forms that are useful to resource managers 
— and I mean — in terms of water quality models, statistical 
relationships, input/output models, one could throw in various 
types of budgets, and so forth. 
This is probably one of the more difficult tasks to 
actually accomplish. Throughout the Bay Region and various 
buildings here and there I'm told that there are these large 
data bases that are either being developed or are developed and 
so forth. And while that's good and perhaps it's absolutely 
necessary, the reason for doing all of this storage and so forth 
is so that we can try to put some of these pieces of information 
together in coherent pictures that are useful in addressing the 
management issues of the Bay. 
Let me try to provide a little bit more background on the 
notions of monitoring in estuaries, in particular Chesapeake 
Bay. And I have three points to make. 
Estuaries are complex. There are lots of components. 
There are the conflicts in the resource uses that are impacting 
the environment and the environmental impact on these resource 
issues. Take for example, the Patuxent River Basin where 
there's a power plant, electricity being generated, recreation, 
and commercial fishing's going on. There are timberlands, which 
have different runoff characteristics than agricultural activi¬ 
ties. Sewage discharges, treatment and so on is another feature 
of the landscape. And one of the things I've always found 
interesting about some of these basins is that, for example, the 
Patuxent River is also an important source for drinking water. 
So we go from drinking water to sewage treatment to fisheries, 
recreation and so forth. So we're dealing with fairly complex 
systems and many of these activities have important inputs 
modifying the water quality and habitat conditions. 
The second point is that these systems are variable. The 
connection between the land and the water, I think, to a large 
extent is responsible for this. And the variability takes place 
over many different time scales, which need to, of course, be 
recognized for monitoring programs. The Patuxent River Basin 
time scales show gross characteristics of change. 
Another important indicator of change in the Chesapeake Bay 
variability is in the long-term record of freshwater flow to the 
Bay. And if you're an ecologist, you can visualize patterns 
where there seems to be periods of low freshwater flow and high 
freshwater flow. Variability is an important consideration. 
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