Cooperative Agreement for CESU-affiliated Partner with South Florida Caribbean Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit

The US Geological Survey is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU partner for research in incorporating sea level rise (SLR) scenarios into the current process of evaluating the ecological impacts of potential restoration projects. The RECOVER (Restoration Coordination & Verification) team is tasked with evaluating how Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) projects will impact system-wide Everglades ecological dynamics. RECOVER has asked that the Joint Ecosystem Modeling (JEM) team at USGS assist with providing the methods and tools to incorporate potential SLR scenarios into their current project evaluation process. This project will work to identify the restoration questions that need to consider SLR, provide information on how to choose scenarios most relevant to each unique project, and provide the methodology for how to incorporate chosen SLR scenarios into the current planning processes through our ecological models. Incorporating SLR scenarios into Everglades restoration project planning will reduce a large uncertainty associated with predicted project outcomes, especially concerning whether projects will maintain or improve the Everglades’ ecological integrity. Stakeholders can use the tools developed by this project to improve their ability to decide between competing restoration plans as CERP projects continue to be implemented across the landscape.