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.
Ecological Model Support for the Biscayne Bay and Southeastern Everglades Restoration Project
Ecological Modeling for the Central Everglades Planning Project (CEPP) Operational Plan
Adding an Aquatic Prey Fish Module within the Everglades Vulnerability Analysis Modeling Framework
Ecological Modeling in Support of the Lake Okeechobee Water Management
Multispecies Operational Forecasting in the Florida Everglades
Modeling Spatial Habitat Quality for the Cape Sable Seaside Sparrow
Ecological Modeling in Support of the Western Everglades Restoration Project
Habitat Modeling for the Endangered Everglades Snail Kite and Its Prey
Joint Ecosystem Modeling: Cape Sable Seaside Sparrow Helper
Joint Ecosystem Modeling: Wader Distribution & Evaluation Modeling (WADEM)
Joint Ecosystem Modeling: Cape Sable Seaside Sparrow Marl Prairie Indicator
Joint Ecosystem Modeling: EverSnail
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.