Independent Scientific Review of Everglades Restoration Progress VIII

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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.

Additional materials

Public Report Briefing

Publication information

324 pages · 7 x 10 · paperback
ISBN Paperback: 0-309-67978-8
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-67979-6
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17226/25853

Suggested citation

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades: The Eighth Biennial Review - 2020. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

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Charles T. Driscoll, Jr.

Charles T. Driscoll (NAE), Chair, is University Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Syracuse University, where he also serves as the director of the Center for Environmental Systems Engineering. His teaching and research interests are in the area of environmental chemistry, biogeochemistry, and environmental quality modeling. A principal research focus has been the response of forest, aquatic, and coastal ecosystems to disturbance, including air pollution, land use change, and elevated inputs of nutrients and mercury. Dr. Driscoll is currently an investigator of the National Science Foundation’s Long Term Ecological Research Network’s project at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in New Hampshire. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and has served on several National Academy committees. He has also served on the Committee on Independent Scientific Review of Everglades Restoration Progress since 2006. He is a fellow of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Driscoll received his B.S. in civil engineering from the University of Maine and his M.S. and Ph.D. in environmental engineering from Cornell University.

William G. Boggess

William G. Boggess is professor and executive associate dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences at Oregon State University (OSU). Prior to joining OSU, Dr. Boggess spent 16 years on the faculty at the University of Florida in the Food and Resource Economics Department. His research interests include interactions between agriculture and the environment (e.g., water allocation, groundwater contamination, surface-water pollution, sustainable systems); economic dimensions and indicators of ecosystem health; and applications of real options to environmental and natural resources. Dr. Boggess previously served on the Oregon Governor’s Council of Economic Advisors and the Board of Directors of the American Agricultural Economics Association, and he currently serves on the Board of the Oregon Environmental Council. He served on the State of Oregon Environment Report Science Panel and has been active in the design and assessment of the Oregon Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program. Dr. Boggess served as a member of the National Research Council Committee on the Use of Treated Municipal Wastewater Effluents and Sludge in the Production of Crops for Human Consumption, and on the Committee on Independent Scientific Review of Everglades Restoration Progress (since 2008) serving as chair of the fourth and seventh committees. He received his Ph.D. from Iowa State University.

Casey Brown

Casey Brown is professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and Adjunct Associate Research Scientist at Columbia University. His primary research interest is the development of analytical methods for improving the use of scientific observations and data in decision making, with a focus on climate and water resources, and he has worked extensively on projects around the world in this regard. He chairs the Water and Society Technical Committee of the AGU Hydrology Section and the Water Resources Planning under Climate Change Technical Committee of the ASCE Environmental and Water Resources Institute Systems Committee. He earned his B.S. degree in civil engineering from the University of Notre Dame, his M.S. degree from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and his Ph.D. degree in environmental engineering science from Harvard University.

Robin K. Craig

Robin K. Craig is the James I. Farr Presidential Endowed Professor of Law at the University of Utah College of Law. Her research focuses on “all things water,” especially water, ocean and coastal law; the impact of climate change on freshwater resources; and the intersection of water and energy law. She has published 11 books on environmental and water law and sustainability. Craig previously taught at the Lewis & Clark School of Law; Western New England College School of Law in Springfield, Massachusetts; Indiana University-Indianapolis School of Law; and the Florida State University College of Law in Tallahassee, Florida. She served on prior National Academies’ committees on the Clean Water Act and the Mississippi River and on the Edwards Aquifer Habitat Conservation Plan. She is active in the American Bar Association’s Section on Environment, Energy, and Resources, where she just completed a three-year term on the Executive Council and where she currently serves as Co-Chair of the Water Resource Committee. She received a B.A. degree from Pomona College, an M.A. degree from Johns Hopkins University, a Ph.D. in English literature from UC Santa Barbara, and a J.D. from Lewis and Clark College.

Thomas Dunne

Thomas Dunne (NAS) is Research Professor in the Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of California at Santa Barbara. He is a hydrologist and a geomorphologist, with research interests in field and theoretical studies of drainage basin and hill-slope evolution; sediment transport and floodplain sedimentation; debris flows; and sediment budgets of drainage basins. He served as a member of the WSTB Committee on Water Resources Research, the Committee on Opportunities in the Hydrologic Sciences, and the Committee on Sustainable Water and Environmental Management in the California Bay-Delta. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1988 and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1992. He has acted as a scientific advisor to the United Nations, the governments of Brazil, Taiwan, Kenya, Spain, the Philippines, Washington, Oregon, and several U.S. federal and state agencies. He is a recipient of the American Geophysical Union Horton Medal and the Linsley Award of the American Institute of Hydrology. Dr. Dunne holds a B.A. from Cambridge University and a Ph.D. in geography from the Johns Hopkins University.

M. S. Fennessy

M. Siobhan Fennessy is the Philip and Sheila Jordan Professor of Environmental Science and Biology at Kenyon College, where she studies wetland ecosystems, particularly how wetland plant communities and biogeochemical cycles respond to human disturbances such as altered land use and factors associated with climate change. Her work has resulted in the development of biological assessment methods for wetlands that were recently employed in the National Wetland Condition Assessment effort led by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). She previously served on the faculty of the Geography Department of University College London and held a joint appointment at the Station Biologique du la Tour du Valat investigating human impacts to Mediterranean wetlands. She was a member of the U.S EPA’s Biological Assessment of Wetlands Workgroup, a national technical committee working to develop biological indicators of ecosystem condition. She recently co-authored a book on the ecology of wetland plants. Her current research focus is the alteration of ecosystem services that results from ecosystem degradation. She served as a member of the National Academies’ Committee to Review the St. Johns River Water Supply Impact Study and since 2015 has served on the Committee on Independent Scientific Review of Everglades Restoration Progress. Dr. Fennessy received her B.S. in botany and Ph.D. in environmental science from The Ohio State University.

James W. Jawitz

James W. Jawitz is professor of landscape hydrology in the Soil and Water Sciences Department at the University of Florida. His research emphasizes remediation of contaminated groundwater, wetland hydrology, catchment-scale water quality, and urban water supply. His work encompasses field experiments, laboratory studies, theoretical developments, and mathematical modeling. In 2016, he was a Dresden Senior Fellow at Technical University-Dresden (Germany). He earned his B.S., M.E., and Ph.D. degrees in environmental engineering from the University of Florida, Gainesville.

Ehab A. Meselhe

Ehab A. Meselhe is Professor in the Department of River-Coastal Science and Engineering at Tulane University. Dr. Meselhe has more than 25 years of experience researching coastal wetland hydrology, sediment transport, and computer modeling of coastal wetland, estuarine, and riverine systems. He worked as an educator, researcher, and practitioner with extensive experience working with academic institutions, government agencies, and the private sector. Dr. Meselhe served as Louisiana’s technical lead for the Mississippi River Hydrodynamic and Delta Management Study and helped build the numerical models that provided a foundation for Louisiana’s 2012 and 2017 Coastal Master Plans. Dr. Meselhe is heavily involved in the numerical modeling being used by Louisiana to help refine the design of sediment diversions at Mid-Barataria and Mid-Breton along the Mississippi River. Dr. Meselhe is a registered Professional Engineer in the sates of Iowa and Louisiana. He also served as an Associate Editor of the Journal of Hydrology (Elsevier), and the Journal of Hydraulic Research (International Association of Hydraulic Research). He earned his B.S. degree from Zagazig University in Cairo, Egypt, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in civil and environmental engineering from the University of Iowa.

Denise J. Reed

Denise J. Reed is a nationally and internationally recognized expert in coastal marsh sustainability and the role of human activities in modifying coastal systems with over 30 years of experience studying coastal issues in the United States and abroad. Dr. Reed has served as s a Distinguished Research Professor in the University of New Orleans’ Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, and spent five years as Chief Scientists at The Water Institute of the Gulf. She has served on numerous boards and panels addressing the effects of human alterations on coastal environments and the role of science in guiding restoration, including the NRC Committee on Sustainable Water and Environmental Management in the California Bay-Delta, and has been a member of the USACE Environmental Advisory Board and the NOAA Science Advisory Board. Dr. Reed received her B.S. degree in Geography from Sidney Sussex College, and her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from University of Cambridge.

James Saiers

James E. Saiers is the Clifton R. Musser Professor of Hydrology at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Dr. Saiers studies how human activities and natural processes affect the quality of drinking-water resources and alter freshwater flows within aquifers, wetlands, and river basins. His recent research projects address water-quality impacts of fossil-fuel development, carbon and nutrient transport through watersheds, radionuclide migration in groundwater, and climate-change effects on water resources in Africa. Dr. Saiers has served on the Committee on Independent Scientific Review of Everglades Restoration Progress since 2012, and he chaired the Committee to Review the Florida Aquifer Storage and Recovery Regional Study Technical Data Report. Additionally, he served as a member of the Hydraulic Fracturing Research Advisory Panel of the Environmental Protection Agency Science Advisory Board. He earned his B.S. degree in geology from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in environmental sciences from the University of Virginia.

Eric P. Smith

Eric P. Smith is a professor in the Department of Statistics at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Dr. Smith research focuses on multivariate analysis, multivariate graphics, biological sampling and modeling, ecotoxicology, data analytics, and visualization. He teaches courses in Biological Statistics, Biometry, Consulting, Data Mining, and Multivariate Methods. His courses focus on extracting information from large data sets, and on analyzing and solving problems through fast algorithms, accurate models, evolving statistical methodology, and quantification of uncertainty. He is the former Director of the Computational Modeling and Data Analytics Program. He is a He earned his B.S. degree from the University of Georgia, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Washington.

Martha A. Sutula

Martha A. Sutula is a principal scientist and head of the Biogeochemistry Department of the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project, where she oversees projects related to the effects of climate change and anthropogenic pollution on acidification, hypoxia, harmful algal blooms, and eutrophication. Her research group combines the use of observations, experiments and numerical models to understand drivers and ecological impacts of these phenomena in streams, lakes, estuaries and coastal waters. Beyond her research activities, she focuses on linking science to management. Examples of this include her work as lead scientist to the California State Water Resources Control Board, providing technical support to develop eutrophication water quality objectives for California’s waters. She received her B.S. degree in chemistry from Purdue University, M.S. degree in public health from Tulane University, and Ph.D. degree in coastal oceanography from Louisiana State University.

Jeffrey R. Walters

Jeffrey R. Walters is the Harold Bailey Professor of Biology at Virginia Tech, a position he has held since 1994. His professional experience includes assistant, associate, and full professorships at North Carolina State University from 1980 until 1994. Dr. Walters has done extensive research and published many articles on the red-cockaded woodpeckers in North Carolina and Florida, and he chaired an American Ornithologists’ Union Conservation Committee Review that looked at the biology, status, and management of the Cape Sable seaside sparrow, a bird endemic to the Everglades. His research interests are in the behavioral ecology, population biology, and conservation of birds, and his recent work has focused on cooperative breeding, dispersal behavior, and endangered species issues. Dr. Walters served on two panels of the Sustainable Ecosystems Institute that addressed issues with endangered birds in the Everglades restoration in addition to previously serving as a member of the National Academies’ Committee on Restoration of the Greater Everglades Ecosystem and four previous terms of the Committee on Independent Scientific Review of Everglades Restoration Progress. He holds a B.A. degree from West Virginia University and a Ph.D. degree from the University of Chicago.

Denice H. Wardrop

Denice H. Wardrop is research professor and professor of Geography and Ecology at The Pennsylvania State University. She also serves as associate director of Riparia. Her research focuses on theoretical ecology, anthropogenic disturbance and impacts on aquatic ecosystem function, ecological indicators, and ecosystem condition monitoring and assessment. Dr. Wardrop is the Pennsylvania Governor's Appointee to the Chesapeake Bay Program's Science and Technical Advisory Committee and previously served as its chair. She also directs the Mid-Atlantic Wetlands Workgroup. She has a B.S. degree in systems engineering from the University of Virginia, a M.S. degree in environmental sciences from the University of Virginia, and a Ph.D. degree in ecology from the Pennsylvania State University.

Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades: The Eighth Biennial Review 2020 Report Briefing

March 25, 2021

1:00 PM - 2:00 PM (ET)

Past

About

The Committee on Independent Scientific Review of Everglades Restoration Progress (CISRERP) VIII will brief the public on the findings of the latest report in the CISRERP series.

Additional Information

Is it a Closed Session event?

Not Closed

Contact

Stephanie Johnson

sjohnson@nas.edu

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It is essential to the National Academies mission of providing evidence-based advice that participants in any of our meetings or events avoid political or partisan statements or commentary and maintain a culture of mutual respect. The statements and presentations during our meetings or events are solely those of the individual participants and do not necessarily represent the views of other participants or the National Academy of Sciences, which is a non-partisan, tax exempt organization that includes under its Charter the National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Medicine, and that operates the National Research Council.

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Independent Scientific Review of Everglades Restoration Progress VIII

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