Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, South Florida-Caribbean CESU

archived

The research included in this agreement is designed to answer questions critical to restoration success. There are four related research goals that are contained within the current cooperative program: Goal 1 – Improve, expand, and revise the EDEN DEM The EDEN staff continues to seek new ways to improve the EDEN DEM, a representation of the ground elevation for the greater Everglades. One example for consideration in 2010 or beyond is to use krigging of ground elevation data for each of the 40 landscape units. The EDEN domain expands as areas of interest are identified and investigators require foundational hydrologic data for their analyses. Goal 2 – Improve, test, and validate the EDEN surface-water interpolation program for estimation of daily water level surfaces by use of revised input data and reparameterization of the model parameters. Ongoing monitoring of water level at gages, benchmarks and by Everglades investigators provide important datasets useful in testing and validating the EDEN surface-water interpolation program. Periods of extreme high water or extreme low water offer a chance to test the programs accuracy during extreme hydrologic events. As re-plumbing of the Everglades system occurs in the future (i.e. filling canals, degrading levees and changing structure operations), the EDEN model will require modifications and revalidation to provide the best possible daily surfacing of the Everglades over time. Goal 3 – Support coastal EDEN development by creating, testing, and validating programs and tools necessary to understand the coastal hydrologic environment. Provide GIS support and analysis to coastal datasets and results. EDEN’s freshwater model was developed in 2006-07 and continues to provide important hydrologic data for the inland portions of the Everglades. Because of the tidal or wind-driven hydraulics of the coastal areas, new EDEN models/programs must be developed in 2010 and beyond to serve investigators working in these coastal zones. In addition, the coastal areas are most prone to impact by sea-level rise. Goal 4 – Support compilation, analysis, and presentation of supplemental EDEN datasets, including by not limited to, rainfall, evapotranspiration, nutrient, salinity, and conductance) Supplemental datasets provide important linkage to the hydrologic data and offer biologists insight about how the Everglades system works and is impacted by change.

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