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What is DECOMP?
DECOMP is the
“keystone” of Everglades Restoration. To significantly enhance
the environmental conditions of the Everglades, DECOMP will
provide a continuous flow of clean water at the northern reaches
of WCA-3A and an ecologically robust pathway for this flow
across both the central and southern Everglades. The DECOMP process was put on hold in early
2005 for the reason that current computer models do not
adequately address some of the important ecological responses to Decompartmentalization, nor do they address some important
stakeholder concerns about canal backfilling.
What is the DAMP?
DAMP is a science-based, cooperative, multi-agency plan for
combining data mining, historical analysis, physical models, and
evaluation tools for finding the best restoration design for the
DECOMP project without compromising water supply or flood
control. It is a
common sense, fiscally responsible pilot study to address
Section 601(h)(3) in WRDA 2000, which states that CERP will use
Adaptive Management to reduce uncertainties and incorporate new
information into planning, implementation and operation of the
restoration effort.
What is adaptive management for
DAMP?
Adaptive management
can be very generally described as “learning by doing” and as
such, for the DECOMP project it is an organized means of
identifying and reducing key uncertainties, allowing managers to
move forward in the face of limited knowledge. Several key
questions for DECOMP include:
a.
How do levees and levee modifications
affect sheetflow, ridge and slough landscape structure and
function, and Everglades
vegetation and wildlife?
b.
What are the differential effects of
partial versus more extensive backfilling of canals on
hydrology, sediment, vegetation, and wildlife?
Why was WCA-3B selected as the
site for the DAMP Physical Model?
Basically, WCA-3B was
selected as the site of a physical model by an interagency DAMP
design team because its orientation, hydrology, and ecological
history addressed the broadest range of questions with the
greatest amount of scientific rigor.WCA-3B is a region of
the Everglades with the
greatest amount of scientific uncertainty and the largest amount
of relevance for other regions.
As the “middle-of-the-center” of
DECOMP, WCA-3B is the key to the recovery of the historic flow
pattern of the central and southern Everglades, aerial increase
of slough in 3B, preventing seepage into commercial regions,
restoring hydroperiods and flows to Shark River Slough, and
creating healthy salinity patterns in Florida Bay. At the same
time, it is not clear how tree islands in 3B will respond to
deeper waters, or how the L-67 canals might support exotic fish,
or whether sediment transport is the mechanism that must be
restored to restore microtopography to 3B.
What are the risks associated
the DAMP?
DAMP could be
perceived by the public as a delay and lack of commitment to
DECOMP by the Corps and the District. There could be cries from
concerned citizens that the Corps “already knows enough” and
that the Corps can proceed with DECOMP “by just restoring the
natural hydrology.” There is some truth to these claims and that
is why the Corps has made it clear to the public and other
agencies that DAMP will accelerate ecological benefits by
addressing current landscape uncertainties so that DECOMP can
maximize the “bang-for-the-buck.”
A second risk of the
DAMP is potential misuse and misinterpretation of short-term
results from the 5-year physical model.
The physical model for DAMP is being implemented in an
environment that still includes significant constraints on
hydrologic parameters such as flow and stage. Therefore,
interpretation of the results of the DAMP physical model needs
to take into account the known constrained environment.
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