On May 4, 2004, an initial meeting was hosted by Andy Milller and Claire Welty at UMBC to discuss the level of interest in proposing a CUAHSI Hydrologic Observatory for the Mid-Atlantic region.

The following persons were in attendance:
Jim Smith, Princeton
Todd Scanlon, Princeton
Kaye Brubaker, U MD College Park
Karen Prestegaard, U MD College Park
Keith Eshleman, Appalachian Lab
Paul Imhoff, U. Delaware
Dominic DiToro, U. Delaware
Gary T Fisher, USGS
Allen Gellis, USGS
Robert J Shedlock, USGS
Taylor Jarnigan, EPA
Ken Belt, US Forest Service/Baltimore Ecosystem Study
Bruce Hayden, UVa
Paolo D'Odorico, UVa
Tom Jordan, Smithsonian Environmental Research Institute
Erik Hagen, Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin
Jack Gwo, UMBC
Upal Ghosh, UMBC
Kevin McCann, UMBC
Michael McGuire, UMBC
Andrew Miller, UMBC
Claire Welty, UMBC
Jon Duncan, CUAHSI

Jonathan Duncan from CUAHSI headquarters in Washington DC presented an overview of the vision and funding mechanism for the hydrologic observatories. A copy of his presentation will be posted on a web site that UMBC will be setting up for this effort.

Quick overviews of existing field sites and related efforts were presented by: Gary Fisher (USGS MD-DE-DC District Office – studies in the Piedmont); Bob Shedlock (USGS, Maryland Water Monitoring Council); Tom Jordan (Smithsonian Environmental Research Center - Chesapeake Bay watershed studies); Ken Belt (Baltimore Ecosystem Study LTER); Andy Miller (Moores Run/Dead Run studies in Baltimore); Bruce Hayden (NEON and MAREO); Claire Welty for Margaret Palmer Lab (studies in suburban DC), Keith Eshleman (Appalachian Lab), Allen Gellis (USGS – Chesapeake Bay watershed studies); Claire Welty (study in the Piedmont in suburban Philadelphia); Taylor Jarnagin (EPA; studies in Montgomery County Special Protection Area-Clarksburg).

Following lunch, the discussion focused on choice of a geographic location of a MidAtlantic HO, and the thematic basis.

For geographic location, the merits of the following were discussed:
• The Potomac
• The Piedmont
• The entire Chesapeake Bay
• The Potomac plus several western Chesapeake coastal watersheds and the Rappahanock

The group more or less settled on the last choice – the Potomac plus other nearby watersheds.

A short white paper written by Jim Smith subsequent to the meeting and edited by others is available that reviews the attributes of choosing the Potomac.

A number of themes were discussed as the scientific basis of the HO, with the following being the most prominent:
• Loading of nutrients and sediments to Chesapeake Bay
• Sustainability of water resources
• Changes – extremes, predictions, human and non-human induced change
• Heterogeneity – space, time; orographic, physiographic
• Urbanization
• Budgets – water, sediment – storage and routing
• Human impacts – urban, agriculture, legacy
• Connections to theory/advancements
• Measurements, predictions, theory of disturbance
• Hysteresis, Nonlinearity in hydrologic response to changing conditions at a variety of scales

The group did agree that it would be desirable to go forward with a prospectus to CUAHSI in August.

The meeting concluded at approximately 3:15. Andy Miller and Claire Welty promised to get back to the group with “next steps”.