Providing a synthesis of basic and applied research, The Everglades, Florida Bay, and Coral Reefs of the Florida Keys: An Ecosystem Sourcebook takes an encyclopedic look at how to study and manage ecosystems connected by surface and subsurface water movements. The book examines the South Florida hydroscape, a series of ecosystems linked by hydrolog

Water is the common lifeline for the natural and built environments in South Florida. Engineered flood control and water distribution systems, agriculture, growth, and development have disrupted the region's water quality, quantity, timing, and distribution (i.e., the hydropattern). Agricultural runoff and urban stormwater have introduced high levels of phosphorus, mercury, and other contaminants into the water system, polluting lakes, rivers, estuaries and the Everglades.

An integrated approach to environmental data management is necessitated by the complexity of the environmental problems that need to be addresses, coupled with the interdisciplinary approach that needs to be adopted to solve them. Agenda 21 of the Rio Environmental Conference mandated international programmes and organizations to take steps to develop common data and information management plans, and steps have been taken in this direction. The key word that defines the framework of the present book is `integration'. The book establishes the basics of integrated approaches and covers environmental data management systems within that framework, covering all aspects of data management, from objectives and constraints, design of data collection networks, statistical and physical sampling, remote sensing and GIS, databases, reliability of data, data analysis, and the transformation of data into information.