ELI examines federal, state, and local measures to protect water resources and assure their availability for use while maintaining ecological and hydrological integrity of watersheds, estuaries, basins, and groundwater systems. ELI's Sustainable Use of Land in the Chesapeake Bay Program also works to promote new tools that support smart growth and reinvestment across the Bay states.
Priority Areas of Expertise and Resources:
Sustainable Use of Land in the Chesapeake Bay Region: ELI works throughout the Chesapeake Bay region to promote new tools that support smart growth and reinvestment across the Bay states. Although the Institute has focused extensively on Pennsylvania and Maryland, we have also engaged in Chesapeake Bay-wide research on smart growth, such as the 2003 study Chesapeake 2000 Tax Policy Study, which examines ways in which state and local tax laws affect implementation of the 2000 Chesapeake Bay Agreement.
Sustainable Water and Sewer Infrastructure: ELI works to integrate the rehabilitation and extension of water and sewer infrastructure with a larger vision for a sustainable landscape, demonstrating new techniques for intergovernmental coordination. Using Pennsylvania as a case study, ELI examined how sewage infrastructure affects land use planning in Planning For Development and Sewage Infrastructure: Can We Be Consistent?