The Design of Ecological Landscape Models for Everglades Restoration

Restoration of the Florida Everglades is mandated by federal and state law, but the mosaic of habitats makes the restoration projects complex. A number of different modeling approaches are available to predict the impacts of diverting water or creating water-quality standards for inflows. Here, six different models are outlined, which have been designed to understand and predict spatial irregularity, complexity, and patchiness, aimed at predicting the hydrology, water quality, ecology, and animal distributions in the Everglades. Each of the models has a different level of spatial articulation. The models include: the Sawgrass-Cattail Transitional Probability Model, the Natural Systems Model, the South Florida Water Management Model, the Everglades Water Quality Model, the Everglades Landscape Model, and the Across Trophic Level System Simulation program. The models demonstrate, with increasing complexity, an essential ability to summarize and integrate spatially complex hydrologic and biogeochemical processes.