Overview
Resource
Limitation | Water Quality Monitoring | Land
Use Change | Data Gateway
Welcome to the home page for Horn
Point Laboratory's (HPL) GIS group! HPL is
an environmental research facility of the University
of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES),
an institution for advanced environmental research
and graduate studies within the University System
of Maryland. The GIS. Group is a group of students,
faculty, and technicians at several institutions
under the leadership of Thomas R. Fisher whose
primary research interests are land use, watershed
ecology, and estuarine ecology. We use remote sensing,
GIS, modeling, and field measurements to investigate
hydrology and the biogeochemisty of C, N, and P
(fluxes and transformations) in the coastal zone.
So, what is a "GIS" anyway?
A GIS is a Geographic Information System, a computer-based
tool for integrating information in a way that helps
us understand and find solutions to problems with
a spatial basis (e.g., why is one creek clean and
another polluted?). More specifically, data about
real-world objects gets stored in a database and
dynamically linked to an onscreen map, which displays
graphics representing real-world objects (e.g. landuse,
streams, soil properties, human populations, water
properties, etc.). By incorporating GIS technology
into our research, we hope to find new solutions
to today's problems.
Resource
Limitation in the Chesapeake Bay
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to top)
Since 1990 we have been investigating
nutrient and light limitation of phytoplankton
populations. Funded by Maryland DNR, this applied
project provides information to the Chesapeake
Bay Program Office concerning how to manage adjacent
watersheds to reduce phytoplankton in tributaries
and the main stem of the Chesapeake Bay. (Go
to the 2002 Report). For more information on
water quality in the Chesapeake Bay see (www.EyesontheBay.net)
and (www.talbotrivers.org).
Water
Quality Monitoring 
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to top)
As
part of an ongoing program which monitors water
quality in the Choptank River Basin, we have been
regularly collecting water samples from a gauged
station on the river. These samples....(go
to the Water Monitoring Page)
Land
use change 
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to top)
Over the last 350
years the Atlantic coastal plain was largely deforested.
European settlers cleared the region primarily
for agriculture due to the relatively good soils,
although urbanization has increasingly claimed..........(go
to the Landuse Change Page)
Community
Data Gateway (back
to top)
The purpose of this site is to provide
access to data and maps of water quality for the
Choptank and Miles Rivers. These data have been
gathered by local water quality groups active on
Delmarva including Creekwatchers and Talbot River
Protection Association (TRPA), as well as by state
and federal agencies (MD DNR, MD Dept. of the Environment,
and EPA Chesapeake Bay Program). Our goal is provide
public access to both the data in several file
formats and to provide maps which display the data
using their spatial coordinates. Click
here to open the Gateway.
-site design and maintenance done
by Greg Radcliffe, gradclif@hpl.umces.edu
