South Florida Information Access (SOFIA)
 
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Tackling cross-cutting scientific problems requires integration of data across offices, Programs, and Agencies. This need is clearly described in the 2007 U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) vision statement, and many organizations have pointed out that successful data integration is impossible without sound, long-term data management. With the recent development and implementation of new federal government and USGS policy, good data management is not only good practice, but is now mandatory. The South Florida Information Access (SOFIA) system was created by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in 1995, early in the internet age, and before data management and integration were seen as vital parts of the research process. SOFIA's charge is to provide easy access to data and information about research projects and products generated as part of USGS Greater Everglades Priority Ecosystems Science (GEPES) and other Federal, state, and local science providers. SOFIA provides this service by integrating information systems and tools enabling efficient storage, organization, and search and retrieval of scientific information related to the south Florida ecosystem. SOFIA was designed to benefit those involved in managing or supporting the Greater Everglades - from scientists and managers, to the general public.
The SOFIA website contains links to project descriptions, proposals, publications, data (through links to our data exchange site and various databases), metadata, presentations, and contact information, as well as general interest items, including photographs and posters. In addition, the SOFIA team continues to work with outside agencies, such as the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD), the National Park Service (NPS), and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). SOFIA also provides support for several other Greater Everglades projects including: Carbonate Aquifer Characterization Laboratory, Ecosystem History of South Florida Estuaries, Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, and maintains the Tides and Inflows in the Mangroves of the Everglades (TIME) website. Several projects use SOFIA to disseminate their data, including major data releases such as: Aquatic Cycling of Mercury in the Everglades (ACME) database, South Florida Hydrology Data Download, Near-Surface Water-Quality Surveys of the Caloosahatchee River and Downstream Estuaries, and Ecosystem History of South Florida Estuaries Data. The SOFIA project also provides substantial support for the Everglades Depth Estimation Network (EDEN) in the form of website development and data management.
A Look Back - 20 Years of South Florida Ecosystem Restoration The following text is from one of the first publications (1995) produced by GEPES. It is provided to not only show how the program started and what its goals were, but to also show that much of the work continues today and is still very relevant. [Text from U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet FS-134-95] The South Florida Ecosystem Program -- a part of the USGS Ecosystem Program The South Florida Ecosystem Program is one of several study areas within the USGS Ecosystem Program. The Ecosystem Program was established to enable the USGS to enhance its scientific assistance to resource managers who require an improved scientific information base to resolve or prevent complex resource conflicts or environmental problems in specific ecosystem sites. Initially, the Ecosystem Program focussed on two ecosystems: San Francisco Bay and south Florida. Chesapeake Bay was added in FY 1996. Activities in each site last from three to five years, and additional ecosystem sites will be added as funding becomes available. The program is multidisciplinary and brings together scientists from appropriate disciplines to apply their diverse expertise to common problems. Disciplines in the present suite of ecosystems include land characterization, surface modeling, geospatial database management, ground- and surface-water hydrology, geophysics, ecology, geochemistry, paleontology, hydrologic modeling, and contaminant, sediment, and nutrient dynamics. The South Florida Ecosystem Program is an intergovernmental effort to reestablish and maintain the ecosystem of south Florida. One element of the restoration effort is the development of a firm scientific basis for resource decisionmaking. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is one of the agencies that provides scientific information as part of the USGS South Florida Ecosystem Program. The Program, which was begun in fiscal year 1995, provides multidisciplinary hydrologic, cartographic, and geologic data that relates to the mainland of south Florida, the Florida Bay, and the Florida Keys and Reef ecosystems (see figure). The Program complements ongoing USGS work, such as the National Water-Quality Assessment Program, the Federal-State Cooperative Program, Marine and Coastal Geology Program and Regional Geology Program, and topographic mapping and digital cartography.
Background Early travelers to south Florida encountered vast wetlands that spanned the State south of Lake Okeechobee. The largest of these was the Everglades -- an area of 2.9 million acres of predominantly peat soils and tall sawgrass that is interspersed with tree islands, which are areas of slightly raised elevation covered by shrubs and woody vegetation. The Everglades was part of the Kissimmee- Okeechobee-Everglades watershed, which covered about two-thirds the length of the Florida peninsula.
The south Florida ecosystem has been greatly altered during the last 100 years. Drainage of the south Florida watershed began in the early 1880's and continued through the 1960's. In response to flooding and hurricanes in 1926, 1928, 1947, 1948, 1960, and 1981, the southern shore of Lake Okeechobee was diked, canals were dug or enlarged to improve drainage, and a complex water-management system that included levees, pumps, and control structures was constructed. Lake Okeechobee and three water-conservation areas (WCA's) were developed for use as reservoirs for flood protection during the wet season and for agricultural irrigation and recharge of ground water in urban well fields during the dry season. About 40 percent of the water that originally flowed from Lake Okeechobee into the Everglades is now diverted to the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. The northern Everglades were drained and designated the Everglades Agricultural Area. By the early 1990's, about 50 percent of the historic Everglades had been drained. The remaining 50 percent is pre served in WCA-1 (Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge), WCA-2, WCA-3, and Everglades National Park, which was established in 1947 on 1.4 million acres in the southwestern end of the area (see figure). Today, the south Florida ecosystem includes urban areas near the coast, intensively developed agricultural areas in the northern Everglades, rangelands, and wetlands. The northern part is either publicly owned wetlands under the supervision of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) or privately owned urban and agricultural areas. Native American lands are located in the central part of the south Florida ecosystem. Most of the southern part of the ecosystem is in public ownership or under public control as parks, preserves, sanctuaries, conservation areas, and refuges (see figure) and contains most of the remaining Everglades and adjacent south Florida wetlands. Resource-Management Issues Drainage and development of south Florida has had major environmental consequences in the Everglades. Saltwater intrusion into freshwater aquifers has extended as far as 6 miles inland from the coast in some areas. The land surface has subsided as much as 6 feet in some agricultural areas because of lowered water tables, oxidation of drained peat, and subsequent peat fires. Mercury contamination of fish has resulted in a ban on the consumption of fish from the central part of the Park, WCA-2, and WCA-3 and is implicated in the deaths of endangered Florida panthers. Populations of wading birds have decreased by almost 95 percent from 1870 to 1973. In high-nutrient areas, cattails are replacing native sawgrass. Plant and animal communities in the Everglades have been altered by changes in timing and duration of inundation; invasion of exotic plants as a result of drainage and land clearing, nutrient, and (or) contaminant-enrichment of water that flows into Everglades from agricultural and urban areas; and loss of habitat.
Program Objectives The USGS South Florida Ecosystem Program supplies resource-management agencies with information that will enable them to reestablish the water regime and to manage and maintain the components of the hydrologic system so that natural ecosystem functions can recover. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (COE) and the SFWMD need USGS data and information to improve models of water flows and water quality and to predict the consequences of the restoration efforts in south Florida. Information on such topics as measurement of flows into Florida Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, evapotranspiration measurement and modeling, vegetative resistance to flow, model review, ground-water flow, saltwater intrusion, high-resolution elevation, digital orthophotoquads, and enhanced model linkage is critically needed for the improvement of hydrologic models.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP), the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) need information on mercury cycling to predict changes in the availability of mercury to fish as a result of restoration. This information includes interactions of mercury with peat, algae, and dissolved organic carbon, as well as historical mercury concentrations in peat. The National Park Service (NPS), the National Marine Sanctuary (NMS), and State resource managers need a circulation model of Florida Bay to estimate changes in salinities, nutrients and other pollutants in the Bay after restoration activities increase the flow into the Bay. The COE needs USGS monitoring information on sedimentation, circulation, bathymetry, water flow and nutrient loading into Florida Bay, and the effect of that inflow on salinity of the Bay for a predictive circulation model. This information will improve their ability to determine the location, circulation, and effects of nutrients and toxic substances that enter the Bay and their understanding of the relation between freshwater inflow and salinity in the Bay. USGS information on nutrient loads to Florida Bay and the reef track will help the NMS in their efforts to protect the marine sanctuary from nutrient-driven coral dieoffs and decline of the fishery. The FDEP uses USGS information on turbidity and sedimentation for refining their evaluation and monitoring programs in Florida Bay. Communities in the Florida Keys need information on nutrient seepage from ground water, provided by the USGS, to determine whether it is necessary to modify their sewage-disposal practices. Collaborators
Modified from U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet FS-134-95 |
U.S. Department of the Interior |
U.S. Geological Survey
This page is: http://sophia.er.usgs.gov/aboutsofia.html
Comments and suggestions? Contact: Heather Henkel - Webmaster or (727) 803-8747 ext. 3028
Last updated:
19 August, 2015 @ 04:35 PM
(THF)
Through 3-5-year efforts in each ecosystem site, USGS intensifies its provision of scientific information tailored to the specific management needs of that ecosystem. The information is designed to have a direct, significant, and immediate impact on management and policy decisions. It addresses regional or subregional issues that involve environmental resources such as water, minerals, and land. The sites may have as their focus such issues as water quality or water supply, environmental effects of mineral or energy use or extraction, effects of alterations in land use or land cover.
