Modeling, Monitoring, and Data Analysis Support for the Chesapeake Bay Program Partnership

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is seeking applications for a six-year cooperative agreement to provide technical analysis and programmatic evaluation support related to water quality modeling, monitoring, and spatial systems for the Chesapeake Bay Program. The project will support scientific staff members who will apply various modeling, data analyses, and GIS activities to develop and communicate information used in decision making. The total estimated funding under this solicitation is approximately $5,280,000 overall, with an estimated $880,000 available for the first year and each year thereafter.

The products and services to be provided by the contractor include:

1. Development and maintenance of databases related to fertilizer and manure management practices in agricultural watersheds.
2. Analysis of data using statistical modeling and machine-learning techniques to identify trends and patterns in fertilizer and manure management practices.
3. Development of next-generation watershed models to improve Bay Program estimates of the influence of watershed conditions and BMPs on nutrient and sediment load changes.
4. Analysis of nutrient and sediment load trends using data from the nontidal monitoring network to inform calibration of a Bayesian watershed model.
5. Development of new spatial analytical techniques for water quality data analysis.
6. Coordination and development of new analytical and visualization techniques to interpret data generated through basin-wide monitoring programs.
7. Analysis, management, and mapping of geo-spatial data using ESRI-based GIS software.
8. Integration of geographic data and maps more fully into CBP web sites to provide more of a geographic context.