How and where we develop has major implications on our local waterways and the Bay.  As more land is converted from forests and farms into commercial and residential development, we see an impact on all natural resources, including our water.  This illustrates the point that whatever we do on the land affects the water.  However, there are ways to better manage the land and to grow in a more environmentally sound manner. 

For more information, please visit the following resources:
 - Chesapeake Bay Program
     - Ecologically-Based Development and Design: Chesapeake Bay Program
 -  Resource Lands Assessment: The Resource Lands Assessment (RLA) provides a regional multi-state look at the most important remaining resource lands in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. 
 - Site Planning & Development Roundtables: Center for Watershed Protection
 - Reality Check Plus: A series of unique community exercises that will address some of the most pressing problems facing the state of Maryland as it adds 1.5 million people by the year 2030. 
 - EPA Office of Smart Growth:  A wide variety of information, including Smart Growth Illustrated with case studies; a link to the Smart Growth Network, a collection of civic, business, and government organizations that support smart growth.
 - Smart Growth America
 - Smart Growth Funders Alliance
 - National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education: a research-based organization at the University of Maryland.
 - Smart Growth Online
 - Builders for the Bay
 - Urban Land Institute Baltimore: ULI is dedicated to education and outreach toward the creation of livable, defensible, sustainable, financially viable, urban places.
 - 1000 Friends of Maryland