TY - BOOK AU - National Research Council TI - Adaptive Monitoring and Assessment for the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan SN - DO - 10.17226/10663 PY - 2003 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/10663/adaptive-monitoring-and-assessment-for-the-comprehensive-everglades-restoration-plan PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Environment and Environmental Studies AB - The report evaluates the plan to monitor and assess the condition of Florida's Everglades as restoration efforts proceed. The report finds that the plan is well grounded in scientific theory and principals of adaptive management. However, steps should be taken to ensure that information from those monitoring the ecology of the Everglades is readily available to those implementing the overall restoration effort. Also, the plan needs to place greater consideration on how population growth and land-use changes will affect the restoration effort and vice versa. ER - TY - BOOK AU - National Research Council TI - Florida Bay Research Programs and Their Relation to the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan SN - DO - 10.17226/10479 PY - 2002 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/10479/florida-bay-research-programs-and-their-relation-to-the-comprehensive-everglades-restoration-plan PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Environment and Environmental Studies AB - This report is a product of the Committee on Restoration of the Greater Everglades Ecosystem (CROGEE), which provides consensus advice to the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Task Force. The Task Force was established in 1993 and was codified in the 1996 Water Resources Development Act (WRDA); its responsibilities include the development of a comprehensive plan for restoring, preserving and protecting the South Florida ecosystem, and the coordination of related research. The CROGEE works under the auspices of the Water Science and Technology Board and the Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology of the National Research Council. The CROGEE's mandate includes providing the Task Force not only with scientific overview and technical assessment of the restoration activities and plans, but also providing focused advice on technical topics of importance to the restoration efforts. One such topic was to examine "the linkage between the upstream components of the greater Everglades and adjacent coastal ecosystems." This report addresses this issue by breaking it down into three major questions: What is the present state of knowledge of Florida Bay ("the Bay") on scientific issues that relate to the success of the overall CERP? What are the potential long-term effects of Everglades restoration as currently designed on the nature and condition of the Bay? What are the critical science questions that should be answered early in the restoration process to design a system that benefits not only the terrestrial and freshwater aquatic Everglades but the Bay as well? This study was inspired in part by the 2001 Florida Bay and Adjacent Marine Systems Science Conference held on April 23-26, 2001 in Key Largo, Florida. An overlapping meeting of the CROGEE was held at the same location on April 26-28, 2001. The conference was organized by the Program Management Committee (PMC) of the Florida Bay and Adjacent Marine Systems Science Program. The PMC organized the conference around five questions suggested by the Florida Bay Science Oversight Panel. These questions related to circulation, salinity patterns, and outflows of the Bay; nutrients and the nutrient budget; onset, persistence and fate of planktonic algal blooms; temporal and spatial changes in seagrasses and the hardbottom community; and recruitment, growth and survivorship of higher trophic level species. Some of these issues are discussed in the present report. However, as noted earlier, this report focuses on the subset of questions that relate to linkages between the Bay and the upstream portion of the Everglades system that arose at the 2001 Florida Bay Conference. ER - TY - BOOK AU - National Research Council TI - Regional Issues in Aquifer Storage and Recovery for Everglades Restoration: A Review of the ASR Regional Study Project Management Plan of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan SN - DO - 10.17226/10521 PY - 2002 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/10521/regional-issues-in-aquifer-storage-and-recovery-for-everglades-restoration PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Environment and Environmental Studies AB - The report reviews a comprehensive research plan on Everglades restoration drafted by federal and Florida officials that assesses a central feature of the restoration: a proposal to drill more than 300 wells funneling up to 1.7 billion gallons of water a day into underground aquifers, where it would be stored and then pumped back to the surface to replenish the Everglades during dry periods. The report says that the research plan goes a long way to providing information needed to settle remaining technical questions and clearly responds to suggestions offered by scientists in Florida and in a previous report by the Research Council. ER - TY - BOOK AU - National Research Council TI - Science and the Greater Everglades Ecosystem Restoration: An Assessment of the Critical Ecosystem Studies Initiative SN - DO - 10.17226/10589 PY - 2003 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/10589/science-and-the-greater-everglades-ecosystem-restoration-an-assessment-of PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Environment and Environmental Studies AB - The report reviews a U.S. Department of the Interior research program, finding that it provides key information to support the restoration of the Florida Everglades and to better assess the impact of hydrologic change on the ecosystem. However, the program needs more funding, better management and broader distribution of its findings. The report suggests that strategic investments in Everglades research will increase the chances of reaching restoration goals while reducing overall costs. ER - TY - BOOK AU - National Research Council TI - Aquifer Storage and Recovery in the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan: A Critique of the Pilot Projects and Related Plans for ASR in the Lake Okeechobee and Western Hillsboro Areas SN - DO - 10.17226/10061 PY - 2001 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/10061/aquifer-storage-and-recovery-in-the-comprehensive-everglades-restoration-plan PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Environment and Environmental Studies AB - Aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) is a process by which water is recharged through wells to an aquifer and extracted for beneficial use at some later time from the same wells. ASR is proposed as a major water storage component in the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP), developed jointly by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD). The plan would use the Upper Floridan aquifer (UFA) to store as much as 1.7 billion gallons per day (gpd) (6.3 million m3/day) of excess surface water and shallow groundwater during wet periods for recovery during seasonal or longer-term dry periods, using about 333 wells. ASR represents about one-fifth of the total estimated cost of the CERP. Aquifer Storage and Recovery in the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan examines pilot project from the perspective of adaptive assessment, i.e., the extent to which the pilot projects will contribute to process understanding that can improve design and implementation of restoration project components. This report is a critique of the pilot projects and related studies. ER - TY - BOOK AU - National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine TI - Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades: The Ninth Biennial Review - 2022 SN - DO - 10.17226/26706 PY - 2023 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/26706/progress-toward-restoring-the-everglades-the-ninth-biennial-review-2022 PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Environment and Environmental Studies KW - Earth Sciences AB - Over the past century, the Everglades has been dramatically altered by drainage and water management infrastructure intended to improve flood management, urban water supply, and agricultural production. Less than half of the original Everglades remain, and these remnants compete for water with urban and agricultural interests, all the while being impaired by contaminated runoff. The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) was established in 2000 as a joint effort by the state and federal government to reverse the decline of the ecosystem. The multibillion project aims to restore the ecosystem over the course of 30 to 40 years by reestablishing the natural hydrological characteristics of the Everglades where feasible and ultimately creating a water system that serves both the natural and human needs of South Florida. Since 2004, a National Academies committee has provided a series of independent, peer-reviewed assessments of CERP progress. Implementation of CERP projects has occurred at a remarkable pace over the past two years due to record funding levels. Ecosystem responses are evident over large areas of the central and western Everglades after implementation of recent restoration initiatives. This progress in implementation has increased the importance of analyzing and synthesizing natural system responses. The committee review of ongoing progress highlights the need for rigorous scientific support for water quality improvement in stormwater treatment areas and modeling for a wider range of plausible climate conditions. Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades: The Ninth Biennial Review - 2022 recommends the development of a multiagency Everglades restoration science plan to ensure the needed tools, research, analysis, and synthesis are available to support critical restoration management decisions. ER - TY - BOOK AU - National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine TI - Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades: The Eighth Biennial Review - 2020 SN - DO - 10.17226/25853 PY - 2021 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/25853/progress-toward-restoring-the-everglades-the-eighth-biennial-review-2020 PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Environment and Environmental Studies KW - Earth Sciences AB - During the past century, the Everglades, one of the world's treasured ecosystems, has been dramatically altered by drainage and water management infrastructure to improve flood management, urban water supply, and agricultural production. The remnants of the original Everglades now compete for water with urban and agricultural interests and are impaired by contaminated runoff from these two sectors. The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP), a joint effort launched by the state and the federal government in 2000, seeks to reverse the decline of the ecosystem. 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. In establishing the CERP, Congress also requested that an independent scientific review be conducted on progress toward restoration with biennial reports. The National Academies' Committee on Independent Scientific Review of Everglades Restoration Progress has provided biennial reviews of restoration progress and advice on scientific and engineering issues that may impact progress since 2004. This eighth study of the series describes substantive accomplishments over the past 2 years and reviews developments in research, monitoring, and assessment that inform restoration decision making. Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades: The Eighth Biennial Review - 2020 also reviews the recently developed Combined Operational Plan, which is a prerequisite for CERP progress in the central Everglades, and examines issues facing the northern and southern estuaries, including priorities for science to support restoration decision making. ER - TY - BOOK AU - National Research Council TI - Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades: The Fifth Biennial Review: 2014 SN - DO - 10.17226/18809 PY - 2014 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/18809/progress-toward-restoring-the-everglades-the-fifth-biennial-review-2014 PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Environment and Environmental Studies KW - Earth Sciences AB - The Everglades ecosystem is vast, stretching more than 200 miles from Orlando to Florida Bay, and Everglades National Park is but a part located at the southern end. During the 19th and 20th centuries, the historical Everglades has been reduced to half of its original size, and what remains is not the pristine ecosystem many image it to be, but one that has been highly engineered and otherwise heavily influenced, and is intensely managed by humans. Rather than slowly flowing southward in a broad river of grass, water moves through a maze of canals, levees, pump stations, and hydraulic control structures, and a substantial fraction is diverted from the natural system to meet water supply and flood control needs. The water that remains is polluted by phosphorus and other contaminants originating from agriculture and other human activities. Many components of the natural system are highly degraded and continue to degrade. Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades is the fifth biennial review of progress made in meeting the goals of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP). This complex, multibillion-dollar project to protect and restore the remaining Everglades has a 30-40 year timeline. This report assesses progress made in the various separate project components and discusses specific scientific and engineering issues that may impact further progress. According to Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades, a dedicated source of funding could provide ongoing long-term system-wide monitoring and assessment that is critical to meeting restoration objectives. The report makes recommendations for restoration activities, project management strategies, management of invasive nonnative species, and high-priority research needs. ER - TY - BOOK TI - PY - UR - PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English ER - TY - BOOK AU - National Research Council TI - Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades: The Fourth Biennial Review, 2012 SN - DO - 10.17226/13422 PY - 2012 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/13422/progress-toward-restoring-the-everglades-the-fourth-biennial-review-2012 PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Environment and Environmental Studies KW - Earth Sciences AB - Twelve years into the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Project, little progress has been made in restoring the core of the remaining Everglades ecosystem; instead, most project construction so far has occurred along its periphery. To reverse ongoing ecosystem declines, it will be necessary to expedite restoration projects that target the central Everglades, and to improve both the quality and quantity of the water in the ecosystem. The new Central Everglades Planning Project offers an innovative approach to this challenge, although additional analyses are needed at the interface of water quality and water quantity to maximize restoration benefits within existing legal constraints. Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades: The Fourth Biennial Review, 2012 explains the innovative approach to expedite restoration progress and additional rigorous analyses at the interface of water quality and quantity will be essential to maximize restoration benefits. ER - TY - BOOK AU - National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine TI - Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades: The Sixth Biennial Review - 2016 SN - DO - 10.17226/23672 PY - 2016 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/23672/progress-toward-restoring-the-everglades-the-sixth-biennial-review-2016 PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Environment and Environmental Studies KW - Earth Sciences AB - The Everglades ecosystem is vast, stretching more than 200 miles from Orlando to Florida Bay, and Everglades National Park is but a part located at the southern end. During the 19th and 20th centuries, the historical Everglades has been reduced to half of its original size, and what remains is not the pristine ecosystem many image it to be, but one that has been highly engineered and otherwise heavily influenced, and is intensely managed by humans. Rather than slowly flowing southward in a broad river of grass, water moves through a maze of canals, levees, pump stations, and hydraulic control structures, and a substantial fraction is diverted from the natural system to meet water supply and flood control needs. The water that remains is polluted by phosphorus and other contaminants originating from agriculture and other human activities. Many components of the natural system are highly degraded and continue to degrade. Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades is the sixth biennial review of progress made in meeting the goals of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP). This complex, multibillion-dollar project to protect and restore the remaining Everglades has a 30-40 year timeline. This report assesses progress made in the various separate project components and discusses specific scientific and engineering issues that may impact further progress. According to Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades, a dedicated source of funding could provide ongoing long-term system-wide monitoring and assessment that is critical to meeting restoration objectives. This report examines the implications of knowledge gained and changes in widely accepted scientific understanding regarding pre-drainage hydrology, climate change, and the feasibility of water storage since the CERP was developed. ER - TY - BOOK AU - National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine TI - Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades: The Seventh Biennial Review - 2018 SN - DO - 10.17226/25198 PY - 2018 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/25198/progress-toward-restoring-the-everglades-the-seventh-biennial-review-2018 PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Environment and Environmental Studies KW - Earth Sciences AB - During the past century, the Everglades, one of the world's treasured ecosystems, has been dramatically altered by drainage and water management infrastructure that was intended to improve flood management, urban water supply, and agricultural production. The remnants of the original Everglades now compete for water with urban and agricultural interests and are impaired by contaminated runoff from these two sectors. The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP), a joint effort launched by the state and the federal government in 2000, seeks to reverse the decline of the ecosystem. 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. Over the past two years, impressive progress has been made in planning new CERP projects, and the vision for CERP water storage is now becoming clear. Construction and completion of authorized CERP projects will likely take several decades, and at this pace of restoration, it is even more imperative that agencies anticipate and design for the Everglades of the future. This seventh biennial review assesses the progress made in meeting the goals of the CERP and provides an in-depth review of CERP monitoring, with particular emphasis on project-level monitoring and assessment. It reviews developments in research and assessment that inform restoration decision making, and identifies issues for in-depth evaluation considering new CERP program developments, policy initiatives, or improvements in scientific knowledge that have implications for restoration progress. ER - TY - BOOK AU - National Research Council TI - Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades: The First Biennial Review, 2006 SN - DO - 10.17226/11754 PY - 2007 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/11754/progress-toward-restoring-the-everglades-the-first-biennial-review-2006 PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Environment and Environmental Studies KW - Earth Sciences AB - This report is the first in a congressionally mandated series of biennial evaluations of the progress being made by the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP), a multibillion-dollar effort to restore historical water flows to the Everglades and return the ecosystem closer to its natural state, before it was transformed by drainage and by urban and agricultural development. The Restoration plan, which was launched in 1999 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the South Florida Water Management District, includes more than 40 major projects that are expected to be completed over the next three decades. The report finds that progress has been made in developing the scientific basis and management structures needed to support a massive effort to restore the Florida Everglades ecosystem. However, some important projects have been delayed due to several factors including budgetary restrictions and a project planning process that that can be stalled by unresolved scientific uncertainties. The report outlines an alternative approach that can help the initiative move forward even as it resolves remaining scientific uncertainties. The report calls for a boost in the rate of federal spending if the restoration of Everglades National Park and other projects are to be completed on schedule. ER - TY - BOOK AU - National Research Council TI - Re-Engineering Water Storage in the Everglades: Risks and Opportunities SN - DO - 10.17226/11215 PY - 2005 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/11215/re-engineering-water-storage-in-the-everglades-risks-and-opportunities PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Earth Sciences KW - Environment and Environmental Studies AB - The Water Science and Technology Board and the Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology have released the seventh and final report of the Committee on Restoration of the Greater Everglades Ecosystem, which provides consensus advice to the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Task Force on various scientific and technical topics. Human settlements and flood-control structures have significantly reduced the Everglades, which once encompassed over three million acres of slow-moving water enriched by a diverse biota. To remedy the degradation of the Everglades, a comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan was formulated in 1999 with the goal of restoring the original hydrologic conditions of its remaining natural ecosystem. A major feature of this plan is providing enough storage capacity to meet human needs while also providing the needs of the greater Everglades ecosystem. This report reviews and evaluates not only storage options included in the Restoration Plan but also other options not considered in the Plan. Along with providing hydrologic and ecological analyses of the size, location and functioning of water storage components, the report also discusses and makes recommendations on related critical factors, such as timing of land acquisition, intermediate states of restoration, and tradeoffs among competing goals and ecosystem objectives. ER - TY - BOOK AU - National Research Council TI - Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades: The Second Biennial Review - 2008 SN - DO - 10.17226/12469 PY - 2008 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/12469/progress-toward-restoring-the-everglades-the-second-biennial-review-2008 PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Environment and Environmental Studies KW - Earth Sciences AB - This book is the second biennial evaluation of progress being made in the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP), a multibillion-dollar effort to restore historical water flows to the Everglades and return the ecosystem closer to its natural state. Launched in 2000 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the South Florida Water Management District, CERP is a multiorganization planning process that includes approximately 50 major projects to be completed over the next several decades. Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades: The Second Biennial Review 2008 concludes that budgeting, planning, and procedural matters are hindering a federal and state effort to restore the Florida Everglades ecosystem, which is making only scant progress toward achieving its goals. Good science has been developed to support restoration efforts, but future progress is likely to be limited by the availability of funding and current authorization mechanisms. Despite the accomplishments that lay the foundation for CERP construction, no CERP projects have been completed to date. To begin reversing decades of decline, managers should address complex planning issues and move forward with projects that have the most potential to restore the natural ecosystem. ER - TY - BOOK AU - National Research Council TI - Review of the Everglades Aquifer Storage and Recovery Regional Study SN - DO - 10.17226/21724 PY - 2015 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/21724/review-of-the-everglades-aquifer-storage-and-recovery-regional-study PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Earth Sciences AB - The Florida Everglades is a large and diverse aquatic ecosystem that has been greatly altered over the past century by an extensive water control infrastructure designed to increase agricultural and urban economic productivity. The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP), launched in 2000, is a joint effort led by the state and federal government to reverse the decline of the ecosystem. Increasing water storage is a critical component of the restoration, and the CERP included projects that would drill over 330 aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) wells to store up to 1.65 billion gallons per day in porous and permeable units in the aquifer system during wet periods for recovery during seasonal or longer-term dry periods. To address uncertainties regarding regional effects of large-scale ASR implementation in the Everglades, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the South Florida Water Management District conducted an 11-year ASR Regional Study, with focus on the hydrogeology of the Floridan aquifer system, water quality changes during aquifer storage, possible ecological risks posed by recovered water, and the regional capacity for ASR implementation. At the request of the USACE, Review of the Everglades Aquifer Storage and Recovery Regional Study reviews the ASR Regional Study Technical Data Report and assesses progress in reducing uncertainties related to full-scale CERP ASR implementation. This report considers the validity of the data collection and interpretation methods; integration of studies; evaluation of scaling from pilot-to regional-scale application of ASR; and the adequacy and reliability of the study as a basis for future applications of ASR. ER - TY - BOOK AU - National Research Council TI - Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades: The Third Biennial Review - 2010 SN - DO - 10.17226/12988 PY - 2010 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/12988/progress-toward-restoring-the-everglades-the-third-biennial-review-2010 PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Environment and Environmental Studies KW - Earth Sciences AB - Although the progress of environmental restoration projects in the Florida Everglades remains slow overall, there have been improvements in the pace of restoration and in the relationship between the federal and state partners during the last two years. However, the importance of several challenges related to water quantity and quality have become clear, highlighting the difficulty in achieving restoration goals for all ecosystem components in all portions of the Everglades. Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades explores these challenges. The book stresses that rigorous scientific analyses of the tradeoffs between water quality and quantity and between the hydrologic requirements of Everglades features and species are needed to inform future prioritization and funding decisions. ER - TY - BOOK AU - National Research Council TI - Does Water Flow Influence Everglades Landscape Patterns? SN - DO - 10.17226/10758 PY - 2003 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/10758/does-water-flow-influence-everglades-landscape-patterns PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Earth Sciences KW - Environment and Environmental Studies AB - The report evaluates a White Paper written by restoration planners in South Florida on the role of water flow in restoration plans. The report concludes that there is strong evidence that the velocity, rate, and spatial distribution of water flow play important roles in maintaining the tree islands and other ecologically important landscape features of the Everglades. ER - TY - BOOK AU - National Research Council TI - Adaptive Management for Water Resources Project Planning SN - DO - 10.17226/10972 PY - 2004 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/10972/adaptive-management-for-water-resources-project-planning PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Earth Sciences AB - This book reviews the Corps of Engineers' experiences to date with the concept of “adaptive management” and provides advice on additional and more effective implementation of this planning approach. The adaptive management concept itself is complex and evolving, but might be summarized as “learning while doing.” The book reviews literature on adaptive management and notes that a range of adaptive management practices present themselves for Corps projects. It is noted that there is no “cookbook” approach to adaptive management, and the book encourages the Corps of Engineers to continue to work with and learn from its applications of the concept. To facilitate institutional learning and to ensure that experiences are being employed across the agency, the book recommends that a Corps Center for Adaptive Management be established. The book also notes that greater involvement from the administration and Congress will be essential to successful adaptive management applications, as the Corps' efforts in this area will benefit from clarified water resources management objectives, the authority to manage adaptively, and from resources necessary for programs such as stakeholder collaboration and post-construction evaluations. ER - TY - BOOK AU - National Research Council TI - A Review of the Use of Science and Adaptive Management in California's Draft Bay Delta Conservation Plan SN - DO - 10.17226/13148 PY - 2011 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/13148/a-review-of-the-use-of-science-and-adaptive-management-in-californias-draft-bay-delta-conservation-plan PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Environment and Environmental Studies KW - Earth Sciences AB - The San Francisco Bay Delta Estuary is a large, complex estuarine ecosystem in California. It has been substantially altered by dikes, levees, channelization, pumps, human development, introduced species, dams on its tributary streams and contaminants. The Delta supplies water from the state's wetter northern regions to the drier southern regions and also serves as habitat for many species, some of which are threatened and endangered. The restoration of water exacerbated tensions over water allocation in recent years, and have led to various attempts to develop comprehensive plans to provide reliable water supplies and to protect the ecosystem. One of these plans is the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP). The report, A Review of the Use of Science and Adaptive Management in California's Draft Bay Delta Conservation Plan, determines that the plan is incomplete in a number of important areas and takes this opportunity to identify key scientific and structural gaps that, if addressed, could lead to a more successful and comprehensive final BDCP. The plan is missing the type of structure usually associated with current planning methods in which the goals and objectives are specified, alternative measure for achieving the objectives are introduced and analyzed, and a course of action in identified based on analytical optimization of economic, social, and environmental factors. Yet the panel underscores the importance of a credible and a robust BDCP in addressing the various water management problems that beset the Delta. A stronger, more complete, and more scientifically credible BDCP that effectively integrates and utilizes science could indeed pave the way toward the next generation of solutions to California's chronic water problems. ER -