Economic-Environmental Planning for Water Quality Control in the Chesapeake Bay Region

The quality of the natural environment has become an important determinant in the universal search for the “quality of life”. The relationship between this determinant and the monetary component of the “quality of life” is often observed in a sub-national or regional geographic setting where the relationship provides the foundation for the debate between regional economic development and environmental protection. This study examines one aspect of the debate, namely the conflict between regional economic development and the preservation of regional aquatic resources in one of the largest and most valuable estuarial systems on earth, the Chesapeake Bay region.