Another component of the Chesapeake Action Plan is the development and implementation of the Activity Integration Plan, or AIP, which identifies and catalogues CBP partners’ resources and actions planned or underway. With this system, CBP partners now have the ability to view each other’s activities across the watershed with details such as where the activity is occurring, how much funding the activity has received, and which partners are involved.

In late winter of 2008, the Chesapeake Bay Program conducted its first ever partner-wide activity data call that included 10 federal, seven state, and two local partners. The data obtained from the data call is housed in the Activity Integration Plan System. Partners can also search the system and view standard system reports.

Activity Integration Plan System

CBP’s Activity Integration Plan System is a comprehensive catalogue of the activities in which CBP partners are engaged to protect and restore the Chesapeake Bay. The system was populated by the partners who participated in the 2008 data call.

The Activity Integration Plan System is intended to provide information (organized by goal) on:

• The actual activities being implemented by the CBP partners.
• The lead partner for each activity and any cooperating partners.
• The amount and source of funding dedicated to accomplishing each activity by all cooperating partners.
• The location of each activity.
• Progress toward the established realistic annual targets.

CBP staff worked closely with the CBP partners by providing detailed guidance on how to enter organizational data, organizing workshops to facilitate hands-on demonstrations on using the database and verifying the accuracy of the data entered into the Activity Integration Plan System during and after the data call. CBP partners entered data using a newly developed, web-based reporting form.

Screen Shots of the Activity Integration Plan System

As of May 1, 2008, the data submitted to CBP’s Activity Integration Plan System for 2007 accounted for 885 partner activities valued at $1.1 billion. The 2007 data constitutes the majority of information in the database due to varying budget cycles of CBP partners and the uncertainties associated with future budgets. Partners that participated in the data call are able to search the database of activities and view Standard Reports.