[PDF] Floridas Water Resources Problems And Needs eBook

Author : Ryan Stoa
Publisher :
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 25,84 MB
Release : 2015
Category :
ISBN :

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Florida's plentiful freshwater resources are indispensable to the state's municipal, agricultural, and environmental interests. As such, decision-makers presiding over complex water management decisions wield extraordinary powers. The Water Resources Act of Florida vests these powers in five water management districts drawn according to hydrological (not political) boundaries. The water management districts have robust technical, financial, and regulatory powers, and hold the key to Florida's sustainable development. But with the stakes so high, Florida's water management districts are at the center of a broader fight for control of water resources. In particular, transboundary water conflicts, political pressure, and ecological needs show that while the water management districts are institutionally mature, external forces can exert significant influence on basin-level water management.

Author : Tom Swihart
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 290 pages
File Size : 29,23 MB
Release : 2012-06-25
Category : Nature
ISBN : 113652164X

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Florida's Water poses fundamental questions about water sustainability in the United States' fourth largest state. Florida has long-standing water quality problems. Global climate change threatens to intensify Florida's floods and droughts, make hurricanes more common or more damaging, and eventually submerge much of low-lying Florida, including the Everglades. How can Florida meet these extraordinary challenges? And what lessons does the Florida experience hold for other states? This book fully integrates the many diverse responsibilities of water management into a readable and compelling combination of interesting narratives and deep analysis. Author Tom Swihart's unique, intimate knowledge of Florida's successes and failures in water management brings out both the novelty of Florida's water situation and the features that it has in common with other states.

Author : John M. Dunn
Publisher : University Press of Florida
Page : 294 pages
File Size : 12,9 MB
Release : 2019-02-08
Category : Nature
ISBN : 081306385X

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Florida Historical Society Stetson Kennedy Award Florida Book Awards, Bronze Medal for Florida Nonfiction America’s wettest state is running out of water. Florida—with its swamps, lakes, extensive coastlines, and legions of life-giving springs—faces a drinking water crisis. Drying Up is a wake-up call and a hard look at what the future holds for those who call Florida home. Journalist and educator John Dunn untangles the many causes of the state’s freshwater problems. Drainage projects, construction, and urbanization, especially in the fragile wetlands of South Florida, have changed and shrunk natural water systems. Pollution, failing infrastructure, increasing outbreaks of toxic algae blooms, and pharmaceutical contamination are worsening water quality. Climate change, sea level rise, and groundwater pumping are spoiling freshwater resources with saltwater intrusion. Because of shortages, fights have broken out over rights to the Apalachicola River, Lake Okeechobee, the Everglades, and other important watersheds. Many scientists think Florida has already passed the tipping point, Dunn warns. Drawing on more than one hundred interviews and years of research, he affirms that soon there will not be enough water to meet demand if “business as usual” prevails. He investigates previous and current restoration efforts as well as proposed future solutions, including the “soft path for water” approach that uses green infrastructure to mimic natural hydrology. As millions of new residents are expected to arrive in Florida in the coming decades, this book is a timely introduction to a problem that will escalate dramatically—and not just in Florida. Dunn cautions that freshwater scarcity is a worldwide trend that can only be tackled effectively with cooperation and single-minded focus by all stakeholders involved—local and federal government, private enterprise, and citizens. He challenges readers to rethink their relationship with water and adopt a new philosophy that compels them to protect the planet’s most precious resource.

Author : Terry Tomalin
Publisher : University Press of Florida
Page : 29 pages
File Size : 20,92 MB
Release : 2016-11-09
Category : Nature
ISBN : 1942852274

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The University of Florida has an ambitious goal: to harness the power of its faculty, staff, students, and alumni to solve some of society’s most pressing problems and to become a resource for the state of Florida, the nation, and the world. Florida has 51,858 miles of rivers and streams, more than 2 million acres of lakes and ponds, 11.4 million acres of wetlands, 4,437 square miles of bays and estuaries, and 8,436 miles of coastline. But these water resources face myriad threats. Tapping the Source takes us inside the UF Water Institute, where talent from throughout the university address complex water issues through innovative research, education, and public outreach programs. Interdisciplinary teams from the School of Natural Resources and Environment, the School of Forest Resources and Conservation, Environmental Engineering Sciences, Geological Sciences, Soil and Water Science, and other departments develop new scientific breakthroughs, creative engineering, policy and legal solutions, and pioneering educational programs that are renowned for addressing state, national, and global water-resource problems. The teams work to manage nitrate flows into the north-central Florida springs, evaluating whether reduction of these nitrates alone will be enough to return the springs to their natural state. They assess the impact of pollutants and other stressors on the aquifer and look at historic rainfall averages and the abundance of algae and grazers, like freshwater snails, present in the ecosystem. Ultimately, they attempt to balance the demand for drinking water for a growing population and irrigation water for agriculture with the simultaneous pressures to prevent pollution and leave enough water for natural ecosystem functions. The stories chronicled in Gatorbytes span all colleges and units across the UF campus. They detail the far-reaching impact of UF's research, technologies, and innovations--and the UF faculty members dedicated to them. Gatorbytes describe how UF is continuing to build on its strengths and extend the reach of its efforts so that it can help even more people in even more places.