Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades The Eighth Biennial Review - 2020 (2021) / Chapter Skim
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Summary
Summary
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The multibillion-dollar project was originally envisioned as a 30- to 40-year effort to achieve ecological restoration by reestablishing the natural hydrologic characteristics of the Everglades, where feasible, and to create a water system that serves the needs of both the natural and the human systems of South Florida. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine established the Committee on Independent Scientific Review of Everglades Restoration Progress in 2004 in response to a request from the U.S.
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3 and Everglades National Park, setting the stage for restoration in the central Everglades and enabling the opportunity to learn about system response to restoration and enhance future CERP benefits. At the same time, the South Florida estuaries remain under threat from habitat degradation, water quality issues, and harmful algal blooms; some of these threats fall outside of the direct influence of CERP and may limit the capacity to achieve CERP goals.
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Summary 3 FIGURE S-1 Locations and status of CERP projects. SOURCE: International Mapping Associates.
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With this increased funding, CERP projects can be completed more quickly, resulting in faster restoration benefits and potentially mitigating ongoing ecosystem degradation. The 2019 Integrated Delivery Schedule (IDS)
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The monitoring plan should also be redesigned to support adaptive management of the project. An acknowledgment that hydrologic restoration is unlikely to replicate predrainage ecology could help agencies prioritize additional management actions, including fire management, necessary to achieve these revised goals.
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With heightened concerns about elevated nutrient loading and harmful algal blooms in the northern estuaries, the state is increasingly interested in water quality management of contaminants beyond phosphorus, especially for nitro gen. Research to improve understanding of nitrogen retention and loss in STAs and the potential to enhance nitrogen removal would inform decisions on the management of harmful algal blooms.
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Combined Operational Plan (COP) In Chapter 4, the committee reviews the COP, a new, comprehensive, integrated water control plan that defines the operations of the recently completed Modified Water Deliveries to Everglades National Park (Mod Waters)
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Without additional flood mitigation projects or seepage con trol efforts, flood risk management on the eastern edge of Everglades National Park could greatly limit the benefits of future CERP projects to increase flow to the central Everglades. Efforts to expedite additional seepage management features or other flood risk management strategies will be critical to providing new water to the remnant Everglades.
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CERP ecological restoration goals, particularly in the northern estuaries and Biscayne Bay, cannot be met if water quality and associated algal blooms, which are outside of the direct purview of the CERP, are not addressed. CERP projects primarily aim to improve hydrologic and ecological conditions in the estuaries by enhancing the volume and
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For example, in Biscayne Bay, nearshore salinity goals were developed, but the absence of freshwater flow targets complicates an understanding of what is attainable. In Florida Bay, the authorized CERP and non-CERP projects do little to address the specific region where historic seagrass die-offs occurred.
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• A southern Everglades transition-zone observational and modeling program that supports project planning and can couple regional hydrologic models, including groundwater–surface water exchange, with spatially explicit estuarine hydrodynamic and salinity models. • Integration of modeling and observations across the entire southern inland and coastal system to evaluate cross-project synergies and ecological responses (e.g., the ecological response of Biscayne Bay and Florida Bay to enhanced seepage management)
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CERP managers face an array of restoration decisions, including adaptive management based on assessments of restoration performance, near-term operational adjustments, project sequenc ing, and investments in additional science. The best science should be actively integrated and synthesized to inform these decisions so that restoration benefits are maximized and opportunities for learning across both CERP and non-CERP projects are not lost.
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Restoration decision making would benefit if the CERP could apply its modeling tools to also investigate questions related to restoration progress, adaptive management, and potential future vulnerabilities. Consideration should be given to how these modeling tools can further benefit CERP decision making, including using models to increase understanding of the Everglades ecosystem and its response to changing external conditions.
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• Continuity of expertise to support adaptive management throughout the life cycle of restoration projects, bringing technical expertise developed during planning to bear on data analysis and assessment of restoration progress toward goals. • Strong science leadership to provide an efficient and direct linkage between decision makers who need timely summaries of ongoing work and emerging issues and scientists conducting research, modeling, and monitoring.
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