This planning checklist was designed to address critical coastal watershed management issues and challenges related to water quality and natural resource protection goals. The Checklist provides an inventory of best practices and policies that local coastal governments, elected officials, watershed managers, and other stakeholders can use to assess the status of watershed protection in their community, and to identify areas for improvement through the use of example resources and case studies. Click on a link below to skip to that section.

The Need for the Coastal Community Watershed Management Checklist

Introduction to the Coastal Community Watershed Management Checklist

Benefits and Practical Applications for this Checklist

References

The Need for the Coastal Community Watershed Management Checklist

Your coastal community is likely feeling growing pains from population growth and tourism or will in the very near future. Coastal counties contain 53% of the nation's population (Crossett et al., 2004). Coastal counties of the southeast U.S. have seen unprecedented growth over the last 30 years, increasing by 64% between 1970 and 1990 (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1996, in EPA 2002). It is predicted that during the next twenty to thirty years, the Southeast will continue to experience high population growth (DeVoe and Kleppel, 1995; Crossett et al., 2004; NOAA, 1999) and most of this growth will occur along the coast due to retirees and job seekers (US Census Bureau, 1998; Crossett et al., 2004).

The U.S. Atlantic coastal plain province is defined as an area of flat, low-lying land adjacent to a seacoast and separated from the interior by other features as defined by Fenneman and Johnson (1946). This province stretches some 2,200 miles in length and includes portions of 21 states that extend along the Atlantic Ocean from Cape Cod, Massachusetts to the Mexican border. The unique natural resources, climate, and landscape draw people to the coastal plain region to live, work, and vacation, contributing to the well-documented impacts of increased development on coastal plain watershed resources. The unique characteristics of the coastal plain, combined with current and predicted population growth, make the area ripe for better management practices that aim to protect coastal communities and their watersheds. The Coastal Community Watershed Management Checklist (the Checklist) was developed to provide resources to protect coastal plain communities from these impacts.

The regulatory framework of federal, state, and local regulations and codes is another defining factor of coastal areas. In some cases, there are regulatory overlays, such as the Coastal Zone Management Act, and most coastal states have more stringent regulations along the immediate coastline. Local codes, policies, and incentive programs can, of course, provide an additional and locally-tailored level of protection, and these local initiatives are the chief focus of this checklist.

Introduction to the Coastal Community Watershed Management Checklist

Through funding from the Cooperative Institute for Coastal and Estuarine Environmental Technology (CICEET), the Center for Watershed Protection developed a planning checklist to address critical coastal watershed management issues and challenges related to water quality and natural resource protection goals. The Checklist provides an inventory of best practices and policies that local coastal governments, elected officials, watershed managers, and other stakeholders can use to assess the status of watershed protection in their community, and to identify areas for improvement through the use of example resources and case studies.

The Checklist has twenty-eight questions organized by the following six sections:

1. Land Use Planning
2. Hazard Mitigation Planning
3. Pollution Sources
4. Shoreline Management
5. Site Design
6. Stormwater Management

The Checklist Evaluation Worksheet contains all six sections in an Excel spreadsheet for scoring.

These sections are not stand-alone; rather, they represent opportunities for integrated approaches to coastal watershed management. In some cases, related questions are linked across sections. You are encouraged to consider all six sections in order to gain a comprehensive evaluation of your community's progress toward integrated coastal watershed management. Recognizing that no single checklist can apply equally to all coastal communities, and that some policies or management approaches may be more important than others, this planning tool is intended to help you compare your community's approaches to others, and to increase your awareness of management options and examples that have had positive benefits in other coastal communities.

Scoring is provided for each question in the Checklist based on the answers provided by the community. A summary score provided at the end of each section is intended to identify the top three strengths and areas for improvement in the community. Key resources and example case studies are provided to support potential changes in areas identified for improvement within a community.

Benefits and Practical Applications for this Checklist

The Checklist provides multiple benefits to coastal communities, such as opportunities to identify:

• Important coastal watershed management strategies.
• Current practices and policies in your community.
• Ways to enhance or improve these practices and policies.
• Resources and case studies that are needed for improved practices and policies.

For example, a coastal community could use the Checklist to learn that their stormwater management program could be improved by providing incentives for the use of low impact development (LID). Examples of other communities that use LID are provided in the Checklist in addition to other resources to support program changes.

Table 1 highlights several of the current trends for the six sections included in the checklist. The table also summarizes recommended management strategies for each section. More information, checklist questions and scoring, and resources are provided in each individual section of the checklist.

References

Crossett, K.N., T.J. Culliton, P.C. Wiley and T.R. Goodspeed. 2004. Population trends along the coastal United States, 1980-2008. NOAA National Ocean Service Special Projects Office, Silver Spring, MD, p 47.

DeVoe, M. R. and G. S. Kleppel. 1995. The South Atlantic Bight land use-coastal ecosystem study: Conceptual framework. South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium, Charleston, SC. Unpublished manuscript, p 28.

Fenneman, N.M., and D.W. Johnson. 1946. Physical Divisions of the United States. United States Geological Survey.

Law, N. L., K. Cappiella, L.Lasher and C. Swann. 2008. Technical Memorandum:Watershed Planning Needs Survey of Coastal Plain Communities. Prepared for Cooperative Institute for Coastal and Estuarine Environmental Technology. Center for Watershed Protection Ellicott City, MD.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). 1999. Trends in US Coastal Regions, 1970-1998. Addendum to the proceedings, Trends and Future Challenges for US National Ocean and Coastal Policy. NOAA National Ocean Service Special Projects Office, Silver Spring, M, p 31.

Schueler, T. 2009. Developing Terrain Specific Design Guidance for the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. Chesapeake Stormwater Network. Technical Bulletin No. 2. Stormwater design in the coastal plain of the Chesapeake Bay watershed, Version 1.0.