STAC and CCMP recently hosted a workshop to review and discuss state-of-the-art coastal and estuarine hydrodynamic models.  One of the workshop's objectives was to provide input to the Chesapeake Bay modeling workgroup that could be used to inform the selection of a future hydrodynamic model used to assess water quality and living resource management impacts.  Specifically, the two groups recommended the following actions:

• Use multiple models to provide better confidence in model output and uncertainty estimates.
• Use open source community models so that many modelers can sift through the model to find different computational approaches and errors.  Using open source models would also increase the confidence in the models among the scientific community.
• Allow the scientific community to evaluate the skill of all future models quantitatively.
• Implement models in a modular fashion so they can be easily used and tested by modelers inside and outside the CBP. 
• Finally, form a virtual Chesapeake Modeling Laboratory to enable the successful implementation of the recommendations above.