Natural Resource Damage and Assessment (NRDA) Program Monitoring and Adaptive Management
State and Federal agencies, including USGS, are working together to assess the damage caused by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and to determine appropriate restoration actions to restore natural resources, ecological services, and recreational services injured or lost due to the incident.
The Science Issue and Relevance: After the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Federal and state agencies including the Department of Commerce (represented by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)), the Department of the Interior (DOI; represented by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, and National Park Service), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the five Gulf States of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, formed a Trustee Council and began working together to collectively assess the injuries caused by the spill and to select the appropriate restoration measures to compensate the public for the injury to and lost use of the resources each of the Trustees hold in trust for the public. The Cross-Trustee Implementation Group (Cross-TIG) Monitoring and Adaptive Management (MAM) work group was established by the Trustee Council to meet the monitoring and adaptive management obligations described in the Programmatic Damage Assessment and Restoration Plan and Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (Final PDARP/PEIS) and Trustee Council Standard Operating Procedures (SOP). The work group consists of one primary and one alternate representative with technical expertise from each of the nine Trustee Council members.
Methodology for Addressing the Issue: As directed by the Trustee Council, the Cross-TIG MAM work group is currently helping fulfill the following MAM responsibilities:
- Maintain and update MAM procedures and guidelines as part of the Trustee Council SOP and the MAM Manual. The Cross-TIG MAM work group will review the MAM provisions included in these SOP and recommend revisions, as needed, to the Trustee Council for future versions of these SOP. Support the TIGs in developing MAM SOPs compatible with these SOPs and the MAM Manual, as needed.
- Facilitate coordination and compatibility of MAM procedures across TIGs. Promote efficiency and collaboration in addressing MAM priorities.
- Coordinate with TIGs and other science and monitoring programs in the Gulf where appropriate, including the development of compatible monitoring standards, procedures and guidelines, and identifying and/or filling critical information gaps.
- Develop mechanisms to engage with the broader scientific community.
- Provide input on the functionality of the Restoration Portal for storing monitoring information and data, including but not limited the development of interactive reporting and analysis tools.
Future Steps: The Cross-TIG MAM anticipates supporting the Trustee Council on the following activities in the future:
- Aggregate and synthesize monitoring data and information to evaluate collective progress toward meeting Restoration Type goals described in the Final PDARP/PEIS.
- Identify emerging unknown conditions/processes that could influence restoration outcomes in order to inform the Trustee Council’s decisions on the timing and purpose of establishing the Adaptive Management and Unknown Conditions TIG.
- Perform programmatic reviews to evaluate the Trustees’ collective progress toward meeting the restoration goals described in the Final PDARP/PEIS and provide feedback to TIGs for consideration in future restoration decision-making.
- Report on progress toward programmatic and Restoration Type goals.
A Case Study Assessing the Cumulative Effects of Deepwater Horizon Restoration Projects on Barrier Island/Barrier Shoreline Ecosystem Resilience in the North-central Gulf
Natural Resource Damage and Assessment (NRDA) Program- DOI Monitoring and Adaptive Management Technical Assistance
Lower Trophic Level Monitoring to Support Restoration of Living Resources in Barataria Estuary, Louisiana
Natural Resource Damage and Assessment (NRDA) Program-Louisiana’s Monitoring and Adaptive Management
Quantifying Restoration Impacts of Wetland Ecosystem Health and Carbon Export
Developing an Oyster Metapopulation Model for Louisiana Estuaries to Assess Reef Connectivity, Recruitment, and Sustainability in support of Louisiana Monitoring and Adaptive Management Strategy
Restoration Impacts to Avian Populations along the Louisiana Outer Coast
Barrier Island Habitat Mapping for the Louisiana Outer Coast Project
Monitoring and Adaptive Management Plan for Deepwater Horizon Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) Project: Large-scale Marsh Creation – Upper Barataria Component
Nekton References and Targets: Assessing the Abundance and Density of Fish and Invertebrates Associated with Louisiana’s Marsh Habitat
Characterizing the Barrier Island Geomorphic State: Indicators of Resistance vs. Resilience
Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) Program-Louisiana Outer Coast Restoration: North Breton Island Component-Monitoring and Adaptive Management
State and Federal agencies, including USGS, are working together to assess the damage caused by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and to determine appropriate restoration actions to restore natural resources, ecological services, and recreational services injured or lost due to the incident.
The Science Issue and Relevance: After the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Federal and state agencies including the Department of Commerce (represented by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)), the Department of the Interior (DOI; represented by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, and National Park Service), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the five Gulf States of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, formed a Trustee Council and began working together to collectively assess the injuries caused by the spill and to select the appropriate restoration measures to compensate the public for the injury to and lost use of the resources each of the Trustees hold in trust for the public. The Cross-Trustee Implementation Group (Cross-TIG) Monitoring and Adaptive Management (MAM) work group was established by the Trustee Council to meet the monitoring and adaptive management obligations described in the Programmatic Damage Assessment and Restoration Plan and Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (Final PDARP/PEIS) and Trustee Council Standard Operating Procedures (SOP). The work group consists of one primary and one alternate representative with technical expertise from each of the nine Trustee Council members.
Methodology for Addressing the Issue: As directed by the Trustee Council, the Cross-TIG MAM work group is currently helping fulfill the following MAM responsibilities:
- Maintain and update MAM procedures and guidelines as part of the Trustee Council SOP and the MAM Manual. The Cross-TIG MAM work group will review the MAM provisions included in these SOP and recommend revisions, as needed, to the Trustee Council for future versions of these SOP. Support the TIGs in developing MAM SOPs compatible with these SOPs and the MAM Manual, as needed.
- Facilitate coordination and compatibility of MAM procedures across TIGs. Promote efficiency and collaboration in addressing MAM priorities.
- Coordinate with TIGs and other science and monitoring programs in the Gulf where appropriate, including the development of compatible monitoring standards, procedures and guidelines, and identifying and/or filling critical information gaps.
- Develop mechanisms to engage with the broader scientific community.
- Provide input on the functionality of the Restoration Portal for storing monitoring information and data, including but not limited the development of interactive reporting and analysis tools.
Future Steps: The Cross-TIG MAM anticipates supporting the Trustee Council on the following activities in the future:
- Aggregate and synthesize monitoring data and information to evaluate collective progress toward meeting Restoration Type goals described in the Final PDARP/PEIS.
- Identify emerging unknown conditions/processes that could influence restoration outcomes in order to inform the Trustee Council’s decisions on the timing and purpose of establishing the Adaptive Management and Unknown Conditions TIG.
- Perform programmatic reviews to evaluate the Trustees’ collective progress toward meeting the restoration goals described in the Final PDARP/PEIS and provide feedback to TIGs for consideration in future restoration decision-making.
- Report on progress toward programmatic and Restoration Type goals.