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projects > southwest florida coastal and wetland systems monitoring > work plan
Project Work PlanGreater Everglades Science Program: Place-Based Studies Project Work Plan FY 2003 A. GENERAL INFORMATION:Project Title: Southwest Florida Coastal and Wetland Systems Monitoring Other Investigator(s): Lars Soderqvist Other Investigator(s): Craig Thompson Project Summary: Hydrologic information throughout the Everglades ecosystem is key to the development of restoration strategies and for future evaluation of restoration results. There are significant hydrologic information gaps throughout the Everglades wetlands and estuaries that need to be addressed, particularly along Florida's southwest coast. Among these gaps are flow, water level, and salinity data. This project, in conjunction with the Everglades National Park's (ENP) marine monitoring network, will provide water level, salinity, and flow information at key points within the mangrove zone along the southwest coast of ENP. This project will also include a wetland component designed to provide water level, salinity, and "sheetflow" velocity at selected points within the "sloughs" (flow paths) flowing into the estuaries. Hydrodynamic modelers of the Everglades, Florida Bay, southwest coast estuaries, and other adjacent marine systems, will use these data to calibrate and verify models describing flow patterns throughout ENP. The study area encompasses the estuarine and wetland regions from White Water Bay near Flamingo to the Ten Thousand Islands National Preserve north of Everglades City. The results of this study will provide information on freshwater flows and salinity trends, effects of weather systems, and on how Everglades Restoration projects affect the freshwater inflows and water quality of the estuarine ecosystem. Project Objectives and Strategy: The objective of this project is to describe the salinity patterns in relation to freshwater inflows to the estuaries and tidal exchange with the Gulf of Mexico, to provide support for the USGS Tides and Inflows in the Mangroves of the Everglades model (TIME) and to programs like the Everglades Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) and the SIRENIA project. Additionally, other federal and state agencies, universities, and local institutions conducting research in the area will be give access to all the information generated though this study. This study will quantify water discharge, describe hydrodynamic characteristics of estuarine rivers of southwest Everglades National Park, and provide necessary information for the development and calibration of the TIME hydrodynamic model. The data collection network established through this project will include the following types of stations:
Methodology: Data collection
Data Analysis
Potential Impacts and Major Products: Information from this study will provide necessary information on freshwater flow from Everglades National Park (ENP) and Big Cypress Preserve (BCP), to the estuaries of southwest Florida. Much of this information has not been previously available to natural resource managers. Such information is critical for quantitatively determining the freshwater flows throughout the southwestern part of ENP and BCP. The water level, water velocity, flow, salinity, and temperature data can be used in conjunction with data from many other ongoing efforts to help determine the effects of changes in water deliveries to ENP and BCP, and into the estuaries of southwest Florida. Flow is closely related to sediment transport, salinity, and chemical characteristics of these estuaries, which in turn, have great influence on the biology of the area. Additionally, this information is and will continue to be used as input to hydrodynamic models of ENP and coastal areas, and for water-budget determinations for south Florida. Such models and computations will be substantially more dependable and reliable because of the availability of water level, flow, and salinity data from this project. In turn, decisions regarding restoration activities based on scenario testing from such models and computations are also more reliable. As the restoration process proceeds, it will be critical to continue monitoring flow patterns in order to understand the effects of changing water supply quantity and source into the wetlands of ENP and BCP. Collaborators:
Clients:
B. WORK PLANTitle of Task 1: Hydrologic monitoring of estuaries within the southwest coast of Everglades National Park, Big Cypress National Preserve, and the Cape Romano-Ten Thousand Islands Aquatic Preserve. Task Summary and Objectives: This task is designed to describe the salinity patterns in relation to freshwater inflows to the estuaries and tidal exchange with the Gulf of Mexico, to provide support for the USGS Tides and Inflows in the Mangroves of the Everglades model (TIME) and to programs like the Everglades Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) and the SIRENIA project. Additionally, other federal and state agencies, universities, and local institutions conducting research in the area will be given access to all the information generated though this task. Work to be undertaken during the proposal year and a description of the methods and procedures:
Planned Outreach: Poster presentation at the next GEER conference Title of Task 2: Hydrologic monitoring of wetlands within Everglades National Park. Task Summary and Objectives: This task is designed to complement on-going sheet-flow velocity research by other USGS projects by providing continuous water level, sheet-flow velocity, salinity, and temperature at two locations within the wetlands of northeast Shark River Slough and one location within the wetlands of southwest Shark River Slough (Rookery Branch area). The objective of this task is to provide support for the USGS Tides and Inflows in the Mangroves of the Everglades model (TIME) and to programs like the Everglades Long Term Ecological Research (LTER). Additionally, other federal and state agencies, universities, and local institutions conducting research in the area will be given access to all the information generated though this task. Work to be undertaken during the proposal year and a description of the methods and procedures:
Title of Task 3: Local elevation surveys at all monitoring stations (coastal and wetland). Task Summary and Objectives: This task is designed to establish elevation ties between 22 monitoring gage-house measuring points and reference marks (RM's) installed for obtaining NAVD-88 datum with GPS instrumentation. The objective of this task is to enable elevation datum transfer from stable reference marks to each gage-house in order to have all monitoring stations reading water levels in reference to NAVD-88. Stations surveyed will include 9 USGS and 13 NPS/ENP monitoring stations. Work to be undertaken during the proposal year and a description of the methods and procedures:
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U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, Center for Coastal Geology This page is: http://sofia.usgs.gov /projects/workplans03/sysmonitor.html Comments and suggestions? Contact: Heather Henkel - Webmaster Last updated: 08 June, 2007 @ 02:11 PM (TJE) |