Decision Support Tools for Everglades Ecosystem-Based Management
The USGS Joint Ecosystem Modeling team will work with partners to identify and develop decision support tools for Everglades water management.
The Science Issue and Relevance: Water in the Everglades wetland ecosystem is highly managed, with thousands of kilometers of canals and levees, and thousands of water control and monitoring stations. Decisions are continually made on where, when, and how much water to move from one part of the wetland to another. The USGS Joint Ecosystem Modeling (JEM) team develops models to forecast hydrologic and ecological conditions to help support these decisions.
Methodology for Addressing the Issue: The JEM team will work with federal and state partners to understand needs and determine which tools to prioritize for development. Currently, agency partners typically utilize water depth data from a single point to inform landscape scale water management decisions during coordination meetings. Further, ecological targets are often based on water depths at a single point or a three-point average in a small area. Depending on user needs, we can develop tools that utilize depth data from across the ecosystem to help inform these landscape scale decisions. We can also update the ecological targets to be applicable to multiple regions of the ecosystem.
Future Steps: Decision support tools will be developed to assist with water management decisions toward improving ecological outcomes. Future work could update additional targets or propose new or integrated targets for ecosystem management. These new tools can be utilized to update hydrologic operational plans in the ecosystem.
Joint Ecosystem Modeling: Alligator Production Probability Model
Joint Ecosystem Modeling: Greater Everglades Modeling Decision Support Tools
The USGS Joint Ecosystem Modeling team will work with partners to identify and develop decision support tools for Everglades water management.
The Science Issue and Relevance: Water in the Everglades wetland ecosystem is highly managed, with thousands of kilometers of canals and levees, and thousands of water control and monitoring stations. Decisions are continually made on where, when, and how much water to move from one part of the wetland to another. The USGS Joint Ecosystem Modeling (JEM) team develops models to forecast hydrologic and ecological conditions to help support these decisions.
Methodology for Addressing the Issue: The JEM team will work with federal and state partners to understand needs and determine which tools to prioritize for development. Currently, agency partners typically utilize water depth data from a single point to inform landscape scale water management decisions during coordination meetings. Further, ecological targets are often based on water depths at a single point or a three-point average in a small area. Depending on user needs, we can develop tools that utilize depth data from across the ecosystem to help inform these landscape scale decisions. We can also update the ecological targets to be applicable to multiple regions of the ecosystem.
Future Steps: Decision support tools will be developed to assist with water management decisions toward improving ecological outcomes. Future work could update additional targets or propose new or integrated targets for ecosystem management. These new tools can be utilized to update hydrologic operational plans in the ecosystem.
Joint Ecosystem Modeling: Alligator Production Probability Model