Research and Innovation for the SNEP Program

The following research-guiding questions are meant to illustrate the priority topics SNEP wishes to investigate in the coming five years. The guiding-questions themselves should be used by researchers to develop their specific research questions. For more detailed information, please reference our strategic plan (pdf) (4.7 MB).

Innovative Technologies and Approaches

• What nontraditional technologies and new approaches should SNEP evaluate over the next five years that hold strong potential to more efficiently and effectively reduce pollution from septic systems, stormwater, and fertilizer, address HABS, further evaluate PRBs and aquaculture, and restore saltmarsh, eelgrass and riparian habitat?
• How can SNEP better compile, track and share results of innovative pilot projects? What data or information is needed to effectively assess and communicate the results of nontraditional technologies and approaches?
• How do we communicate the multiple benefits of nontraditional technologies (social, economic, environmental)?
• What are the barriers for getting high priority innovative technologies permitted, approved for general use, and accepted for widespread use? How can SNEP break down those barriers? How can SNEP facilitate cooperation between state, federal, and local partners?
• Explore the potential benefits of incorporating unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) and remote sensing technologies into the development of a systems-level regional approach to track the progression of environmental changes over time, to monitor the development and success of innovative solutions post-implementation, and to apply nuanced economic analyses that can more accurately and successfully convey impacts of the environment on regional economies.

Evaluation of Ecosystem Service Benefits

• What methodology(ies) are appropriate in the SNEP region to track, compile, evaluate and demonstrate the full range of environmental, social and economic benefits achieved by water quality, resiliency and habitat restoration projects at both a site specific, watershed and regional scale.

Monitoring

• How do the different geological, biological, chemical, and physical characteristics of each part of the SNEP region dictate pollutant (nutrients, total suspended solids, bacteria) movement and impact solutions?
• How can we use this information to better tailor BMPs (both BMP type and design)?
• How can we use this information to focus future monitoring and project funding?
• How can we use this information to estimate the expected impacts BMPs will have?

Tracking Program Effectiveness

• How should we track site specific, watershed, and system wide changes in environmental quality (water quality, habitat health) and resiliency (flood mitigation, protection from sea level rise) from SNEP funded projects?

Harmful Algal Blooms

• What data is currently available about the occurrence of harmful algal blooms (HABs), and how can the region establish a mechanism to receive, compile and track monitoring data about the presence of HABs in the region?
• What methodologies are best capable of tracking the occurrence of HABs?
• What monitoring data is missing and needed to track the existence of HABs and their potential risk to public health?
• What practices are most promising to reduce HABs through treatment at the source, in ground water, and where they occur?
• How can SNEP quantify the heath, social, economic, and environmental impacts of freshwater HABs? What data is necessary to do this? Conversely, how do we quantify the social, economic, and environmental impacts of BMPs that aid with HAB reduction?
• To what extent, and from what distance, do septic systems contribute phosphorus to coastal ponds experiencing HABs in the SNEP region?
• How can SNEP and other organizations in the region best share information about the presence of HABs?
• How can SNEP support the development of new potential technologies available to improve HAB detection?

Effective Communication

• What training and information is needed for professionals to help towns and tribes plan for and finance protection and restoration activities?
• What are the factors that drive people's decisions about whether to support local environmental protection and restoration projects in the region? How can we use this information to identify viable solutions to common challenges and develop effective education and outreach programs?
• What are the best venues and approaches to disseminate information about land use practices, effective technologies and approaches, and the co-benefits of local and holistic sub-watershed management projects to our SNEP partners, especially municipal and tribal professional staff and volunteers, consultants and local decision-makers?