The Everglades: A regional watershed assessment

Conference · Sun Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1995

OSTI ID:211962

Gentile, J H; Harwell, M; Harwell, C; Myers, V; Landers, A ^[1]; Bartuska, A ^[2]; Ogden, J ^[3]; Long, J ^[4]

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1. Univ. of Miami, FL (United States)
2. Forest Service, Washington, DC (United States)
3. Park Service Everglades National Park, Homestead, FL (United States)
4. Bureau of the Census, Washington, DC (United States)

The Everglades and South Florida ecosystems are the focus of national and international attention because of their current degraded and threatened state. In 1990, the State Department, Man and the Biosphere (MAB), Human-Dominated Systems Directorate instituted a core project on the Everglades and South Florida. The purpose of this program was to develop a conceptual model for sustainability that integrated ecological risk principles and societal issues within an adaptive ecosystem management framework. The approach was to: (1) determine the defining physical, chemical and ecological characteristics of the natural unperturbed Everglades, (2) identify the appropriate stressors and ecological endpoints and indicators; and (3) use scenario consequence analyses to determine the ecological effects and social implications resulting from management options that altered land use and hydrology. The defining characteristics of a the historical, sustainable Everglades include: a diverse species composition, heterogeneous habitat and landscape mosaic, large spatial scale, natural patterns of fire, dynamic patterns of water storage and sheet flow, and low nutrient waters. Scenarios were aggregated according to land use. A GIS was used to project changes in land use patterns. Hydrological consequences of land use change were examined using hydrodynamic models. Initial scenarios, which add more land into core protective status provided sufficient spatial extent for sustaining populations and landscape characteristics. However, water storage and release capacity was insufficient to provide for the natural hydrological regime essential for recovery of the Everglades. A final scenario was developed that provided sufficient spatial extent to recover and sustain the population- and landscape-level characteristics and was sufficient for the storage and release of fresh water needed for the Everglades and coastal ecosystems.

• OSTI ID: 211962
• Report Number(s): CONF-9511137--; ISBN 1-880611-03-1
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
EVERGLADES NATIONAL PARK
FLORIDA
HYDROLOGY
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
WATER POLLUTION