Session Lead: Michael Maddox (University of Maryland, Climate Resilience Network)

Co-Lead(s): Taryn Sudol

Session Format: Oral presentations

Session Description: 

On December 2nd, 2025, the new 15-year plan was signed into action by the Chesapeake Bay Program Partners. The new agreement adds a new emphasis on resilience and community engagement. The 2025 agreement states “One of the most important lessons the partners have learned from the past four decades is that although watershed-wide partnerships can help to coordinate and catalyze progress, implementation is locally inspired and driven”.


Localizing mitigation and adaptation planning and implementation requires more localized data and observations. Currently, there remains swaths of “data deserts” in the Chesapeake Bay watershed that need to be filled to make the best possible decisions at the local level with limited resources. To fill this data gap, several groups have developed lower to low-cost sensors that can be installed in dense networks or have invested in uncrewed arial systems. These systems offer approaches for filling in gaps in larger observation networks. Data at the local level also helps inform earth system models, data assimilation efforts and risk analysis.


This session will focus on advances in low-cost and/or densely located sensors and observation systems designed to inform more localized decision-making.

Presentations (Session 14 Abstracts)

  1. Drew Powell, Matthew Baker, Dillon Mahmoudi: Understanding Spatiotemporalal Variation in Air Quality Using Purple Air Sensors
  2. Tiberias Okanga: Advancing Community Air Quality Monitoring Through Low-Cost Sensors in the Baltimore–Washington Corridor
  3. Katie Lehman, Ava Puschnigg: Mesoterps: Building a Resilient Campus With High-Resolution Environmental Monitoring
  4. Tim Canty, Michael Maddox, Louis Uccellini, Ava Puschnigg: Addressing Adaptation Challenges Facing the Chesapeake Bay Through Low-Cost Monitoring Supporting Impact-Based Decision Support Services
  5. Tori Tomiczek, Liliana Velasquez Montoya, Jasmine Wilding, Alexis Rider, Kevin Colbeck, Lucia Samaras, Belle Neset: Monitoring Local Coastal Backflow in Storm Drains Using Low-Cost Accelerometers: Flood Frequency and Duration in Annapolis, MD Using Low-Cost Accelerometers
  6. Megan Curtiss: Cities as climate labs: Measuring tree growth responses across urban stress gradients with dendrometer bands