Abstract
Managers were invited to attend the two-day “Predicting Ecological Changes in the Florida Everglades in a Future Climate Scenario” workshop and to participate in discussion and panel sessions. This paper provides a management perspective on the technical presentations presented at the workshop, identifying information of particular interest to Everglades restoration decision-making. In addition, the paper highlights the points related to science and decision-making that emerged from the discussion sessions and provides thoughts for future discussion in a follow-up forum. Particular focus is dedicated to the importance of and challenges associated with integrating science and decision-making. In addition, the paper offers a management perspective on the uncertainties of climate science and the implications they have for influencing Everglades restoration decision-making. The authors propose that on the one hand, even given uncertainties associated with predicting the ecological response to climate change, there remains a scientific consensus that Everglades restoration is generally on the right track. On the other hand, uncertainty can be a significant barrier to climate science influencing the implementation of restoration and adaptive management programs.
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Notes
For the purposes of this paper, the terms "manager" and "decision-maker" are determined to mean essentially the same thing, namely a person whose role in the Everglades restoration program comes with decision-making authority or influence or the responsibility to provide recommendations to decision-makers. People falling into this group include project and program managers, political appointees, elected officials and policy officials.
Design efforts typically do not include features required to manage the most extreme hydrologic conditions due to the high cost and low frequency of occurrence of those conditions.
The primary obstacles to integration of emerging climate science into decision-making involve organizational jurisdictions, budgeting priorities, and funding. It might be worth making a general statement here recognizing that it can be difficult to accurately assess to what extent science is influencing management when one considers all of the non-scientific factors that are weighed in management decisions.
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Estenoz, S., Bush, E. Everglades Restoration Science and Decision-Making in the Face of Climate Change: A Management Perspective. Environmental Management 55, 876–883 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-015-0452-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-015-0452-x