Scenarios for the Patuxent

The Patuxent Watershed Scenario Development Workshop was held on March 31, 1998. It was sponsored by the Patuxent River Commission and the University of Maryland Institute for Ecological Economics

A number of scenarios and related questions were discussed. Among them:

Scenarios Originating within the Economic Model

Economic Incentives

• Tradeable/transferable development rights
• Impact fees on new development
• Changes to Taxes/subsidies to encourage:
• wetland preservation
• forest preservation
• agricultural preservation
• farming practices (avoid erodable soil/steep slopes)
• land trusts
• Test/compare each county's unique options on entire watershed (e.g. Howard's Density Exchange Option)
  

Planning/Zoning options

• Lot size (urban and agricultural)
• Maximum septic density
• Sewer expansion
• Suburban and rural clustering

Scenarios Originating within the Ecological Model

Historical and End Member Comparison

• All forested landscape
• Current land use with:
  • no urban
  • no agriculture
  • all developed land as agriculture
  • all developed land as urban

Management changes not represented in economic model

• Adoption of various farming practices (BMPs)
• Riparian buffer development/preservation
• Urban BMP regulations

Technological change

• Precision farming
• BNR on smaller WWTPs
• Wetland gray-water treatment systems
• Bioretention (constructed wetlands capture runoff)

Forcing Function Change

• Climate change
• Sea level rise

Decision Support

• Maximizing nutrient reductions from restoration effort
  (modeling best places to restore)

Ecological and Economic Goals

• Protect groundwater quality and recharge areas
• Reach 40% nutrient reduction goal (and maintain?)
• Maintain open space
• Maintain wildlife corridors
• Reduce deer-car collisions
• Preserve rural character
• Preserve historical sites
• Preserve/increase land values
• Protect threatened and endangered species
• Protect drinking water sources/reservoirs
• Prevent invasive species
• Prevent erosion
• Range of housing prices

You are invited to join the discussion and share your thoughts on these and other related issues.

  List of Contributors

• Geri Unger

Comments of Geri Unger:

Friends:

I am working on a project funded by USEPA, Region 5 (Great Lakes) to determine if a cost of sprawl analaysis would be useful to decision makers in Northeast Ohio (a 7-8 county region, including the Cuyahoga River watershed). This is a pre-model development, looking at best practices in other areas. I'm also looking at transportation indicators. Other folks are concentrating on the economic data.

Could you please comment on the how your project has translated into decision by regional and local governmental organizations. Could you also comment on the transferability of your models to other watersheds and regions. Also, how have you integrated the economic costs of alternative scenarios.

If you have any other leads into good projects in other regions, please let me know.

Thanks for you interest and I look forward to speaking with you soon.

Geri Unger