Minimizing Ecological Impacts During the Siting of Comprehensive Everglades
Restoration Plan Project Features: the Development of an Ecological Surface
Value Model for the Lake Okeechobee Watershed Project.
David E. Hallac, and Brian Luprek
U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, South Florida Ecological Services Office, Vero
Beach, FL
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s South Florida Ecological Services Office
developed a multi-criteria GIS-based ecological assessment tool for one of the
Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan projects, the Lake Okeechobee
Watershed Project. The purpose of this planning tool is to aid project planners in
siting project components (above-ground reservoirs and stormwater treatment
areas) by determining the potential ecological costs when placing them on
alternative site locations within the watershed. Using a three-tiered approach, we
created ecological surface values by considering threatened and endangered
species, general fish and wildlife habitat, and rare community types. The model
incorporates data for three threatened and endangered species, species diversity,
proximity of habitats to disturbed areas, and the degree to which the unique
habitats within the project area are classified as rare, both in a state and global
context. Use of the tool may aid in siting project elements on Lake Okeechobee
Watershed lands that have the lowest value based on the ecological criteria
included in the model.
David, Hallac, U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, South Florida Ecological Services
Office, 1339 20th Street, Vero Beach, Florida 32960, Phone: 772-562-3909, Fax:
772-562-4288, David_Hallac@fws.gov, Ecology and Ecological Modeling