Greater Everglades Landscape Dynamics

As a general strategy, collaborative efforts with specialists in various aspects of the Everglades are combined with our knowledge of remote sensing, our development of statistical and geographic analysis techniques, and data from numerous airborne and satellite imaging systems to yield new data and knowledge of Everglades characteristics and processes. We then evaluate the utility of these techniques and data for Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) science and monitoring activities. Fieldwork for this effort has included the collection of high-resolution reflectance spectra for a great number of vegetation and land surfaces. Also, vegetation biomass and other structural characteristics have been non-destructively sampled at intensive field study sites. These data have been analyzed to determine their shortcomings and strengths for remote sensing and other spatially distributed analyses. Based on the results of these analyses, new methods of ground data collection appropriate for the necessary spatial and temporal extrapolations have been devised. Newly developed data collection protocols and extrapolation methods are used to test the efficacy of data fields and vegetation maps derived from remotely sensed data for CERP modeling and monitoring requirements. They are also used to generate baseline information and suggest longer-term strategies and monitoring techniques for CERP impact evaluation.