Maryland Commission on Climate Change

The Maryland Commission on Climate Change (MCCC) is charged with developing an action plan and firm timetable for mitigation of and adaptation to the likely consequences and impacts of climate change in Maryland, including strategies to reduce Maryland's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Certified Land Preservation Programs

The Certified Land Preservation Program is state and local partnership to create local land preservation programs and continually improve them.

Land Acquisition and Planning Programs

The Department of Natural Resources Land Acquisition and Planning Unit works to advance land conservation and outdoor recreational opportunities in Maryland.

Rural Legacy Areas

The Rural Legacy Program was created in 1997 to protect large, contiguous tracts of Maryland's most precious cultural and natural resource lands through grants made to local applicants.

Chesapeake & Coastal Service Programs

Maryland’s Chesapeake & Coastal Service is a partnership among local, regional and state agencies to ensure that the expertise, tools and financial resources are used to their utmost capacity to address Chesapeake, coastal and ocean management priorities.

Maryland Watershed Implementation Plan

Watershed Implementation Plans (WIPs) document the steps, measures, and practices Maryland and its local jurisdictions will take and implement to achieve and maintain the final Chesapeake Bay TMDL by the year 2025.

Program Open Space - Local

Program Open Space – Local provides financial and technical assistance to local subdivisions for the planning, acquisition, and/or development of recreation land or open space areas.

Program Open Space - Stateside

Program Open Space Stateside preserves natural areas for public recreation and watershed and wildlife protection across Maryland through the purchase of fee-simple and easement acquisitions. Fee simple purchases are managed by the department as State Parks, Forests, and Wildlife and Fisheries Management Areas.

Project Green Classrooms environmental education initiative

Project Green Classroom is an initiative to promote outdoor experiential activities and environmental education through Maryland’s schools, communities and public lands.

Coast Smart Climate Ready Action Boundary (CS-CRAB) Map

The Coast Smart Climate Ready Action Boundary (CS-CRAB) map was developed in a multi-agency effort by the Maryland Coast Smart Council to identify and mitigate future flood risk to the state's existing infrastructure. The data product was created leveraging existing FEMA regulatory boundaries and infusing an additional three feet of water elevation to determine the new water surface elevations and potential flooding extents (up and out).

Ecosystem Services

The benefits people gain from the environment can be collectively referred to as Ecosystem Services, which are commonly divided into four major categories: provisioning services (e.g. timber, firewood, food), regulating services (e.g. water purification, wildlife habitat), supporting services (e.g. nutrient cycling, soil formation) and cultural services (e.g. recreation, spiritual benefits.

Get Kids Outside Website

A storymap of Project Green Classrooms

Maryland Coastal Atlas

The Coastal Atlas is a mapping tool that allows state and local decision-makers to visually analyze and explore coastal and ocean data layers for project and planning purposes. Using the built-in tools, the user can query, map, and analyze spatial data to better understand Maryland's marine resources.

Maryland InfoPortal

Maryland InfoPortal is the best one stop for finding financial and non-financial assistance, containing links to 700-plus state programs providing financial, non-financial and technical assistance and direct development to local government, civic and private organizations, and individuals.

Maryland Land Use / Land Cover 2010

The Land Use & Cover map and data is used to show development trends on the landscape in Maryland.

Maryland Protected Lands Dashboard

The Maryland land preservation dashboard is designed to let you assess the current status of Maryland's land preservation efforts and to access the tabular data that informs the dashboard as well as available land preservation GIS data.

Maryland’s Plan to Adapt to Saltwater Intrusion and Salinization

Pursuant to Chapter 628 of the 2018 Laws of Maryland, the Maryland General Assembly tasked the Maryland Department of Planning (Planning) to “establish a plan to adapt to saltwater intrusion,” in consultation with the Maryland Departments of Natural Resources, Environment and Agriculture, Planning presents in this plan, as a result of collaboration with many state agency, university, and other partners, a first state-level report on this issue. The plan is a first step towards better understanding and addressing saltwater intrusion and salinization in Maryland. To varying degrees, saltwater intrusion and salinization already impacts Maryland’s groundwater, surface waters, wetlands, coastal forests, agriculture and infrastructure; however, there is currently no comprehensive understanding of all of the areas currently at risk, and limited knowledge of which areas are at risk in the future. To determine current and future areas at risk, extensive research, modeling and monitoring is recommended.

Maryland's Green Infrastructure Assessment

The Green Infrastructure Assessment (GIA), based on principles of landscape ecology and conservation biology, identified an ecological network using satellite imagery to characterize land cover, Geographic Information System (GIS) data on road, stream, wetland and other resource features, and biological databases.

MERLIN-Maryland’s Environmental Resource & Land Information Network

Maryland's Environmental Resources and Land Information Network (MERLIN) Online allows users to produce a custom map of any location in Maryland, to include their choice of base maps and data layers.

Reducing Maryland’s Vulnerability to Climate Change Phase I: Sea-level rise and coastal storms

Maryland’s Climate Action Plan includes two climate change adaptation strategies that are currently being used to guide state-level adaptation planning efforts. The first strategy (Phase I) addresses the impacts associated with sea level rise and coastal storms.

Reducing Maryland’s Vulnerability to Climate Change Phase II: Building societal, economic, and ecological resilience

Maryland’s Climate Action Plan includes two climate change adaptation strategies that are currently being used to guide state-level adaptation planning efforts. The second strategy (Phase II) addresses changes in precipitation patterns and increased temperature, and the likely impacts to human health, agriculture, forest and terrestrial ecosystems, bay and aquatic environments, water resources, and population growth and infrastructure.