Review Panels

August 2014-March 2015: Technical Review of Options to Move Water from Lake Okeechobee to the Everglades
In response to recommendations from the Florida Senate Select Committee on Indian River Lagoon and Lake Okeechobee Basin, the Florida Senate requested that the UF Water Institute conduct an independent technical review of agency-adopted and other proposed plans to move water from Lake Okeechobee to the Everglades. The purpose of the review was to (1) determine whether existing agency plans are technically sound; and (2) identify innovative, new approaches that have not previously been considered.

July 2013-October 2013: Peer Review of the Lower Santa Fe and Ichetucknee River MFLs
The UF Water Institute convened a panel of experts to perform an independent peer review of the data, assumptions, methodologies, and conclusions of the Suwannee River Water Management District report entitled, “Proposed Minimum Flows and Levels for the Lower Santa Fe and Ichetucknee Rivers and Associated Priority Springs”, and to prepare a report summarizing the collective scientific opinions of the group. Project sponsored by the Suwannee River Water Management District.

September 2011-March 2012:
The UF Water Institute coordinated a review of the assumptions, methods and data sources used by the St Johns River Water Management District and Florida Department of Environmental Protection to estimate nutrient loadings and establish nutrient load reduction allocations associated with the Lower St. Johns River (LSJR) Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL). The project team delivered a report and conducted public workshops to disseminate findings to LSJR area stakeholders. This project was sponsored by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and the Florida Department of Environmental Regulation.
Click here for more details

June 2009-March 2010:
The UF Water Institute coordinated a peer review of the groundwater modeling effort in support of the 2010 Northeast Florida Water Supply Planning Effort. Project sponsored by St. Johns and Suwannee River Water Management Districts.

May 2009:
The UF Water Institute coordinated a statewide peer review of the St. Johns River Water Management District’s Water Conservation Program. Project sponsored by St. Johns River Water Management District.

November 19-20, 2008:
The UF Water Institute coordinated a national peer review of the Watershed Assessment Model. Project sponsored by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and the Florida Department of Environmental Regulation.

September 25-26, 2008:
The UF Water Institute coordinated statewide peer review of American Water Works Associate Florida 2030 Water Supply Infrastructure Vision Documents. Sponsored by the Century Commission in preparation for the Governor’s Water Summit. See http://waterinstitute.ufl.edu/research/downloads/fl_2030_review_synthesis_final.pdf for a copy of the review.

Workshops

January 23-25, 2012: Brazil Dams Workshop
A three-day symposium on UF campus included the participation of UF and Brazilian scholars, as well as invited guests. The symposium consisted of a day of presentations and roundtables, a day of integrative research exercises and a day for group work and discussions about potential proposals to fund research and education. The Symposium was spearheaded by Simone Athayde in the Center of Latin American Studies. This was part of the Amazon Dams Program Initiative, an effort to build a bi-national research program on the multiple social and environmental effects of dams in the Brazilian Amazon. The effort includes 14 UF faculty, post-docs and PhD students; 14 professors and professionals from Brazil, and 2 collaborators from other American institutions. As a result of the workshop, a letter was submitted to the journal Nature with eight UF authors and five authors from Brazilian institutions. Program Announcement, Agenda, Bios, and Abstracts (pdf) . Symposium Introduction (pdf).

Thursday, February 10, 2011: Ichetucknee Preservation Research Workshop
The UF Water Institute coordinated a 1-day workshop of state experts and managers interested in springs ecosystem restoration, focusing on the Ichetucknee Springs system which includes a large springshed, the Ichetucknee River and 8 major springs. The focus of the meeting is to discuss important restoration priorities and research needed to inform restoration and necessary monitoring. See this page for important resources about the Ichetucknee ecosystem and for Workshop presentations, posters, and outcomes.

September 23-24, 2009:
The UF Water Institute hosted a 2-day workshop of national experts for the St. Johns River Water Management District on the Environmental Effects of Withdrawals from the St. Johns River.

September 17-18, 2008:
The UF Water Institute hosted a 2-day workshop of national experts for the St. Johns River Water Management District on the Environmental Effects of Withdrawals from the St. Johns River.

Thursday, September 4, 2008:
The UF Water Institute coordinated and sponsored a panel discussion on Water and Social Equity at the Harn Museum in conjunction with Harn "Water as Metaphor for Identity" exhibition and the UF Common Reading Program “When Rivers Run Dry”.

Friday, November 30, 2007:
The Water Institute hosted a one-day Water Conservation Research Planning Workshop to review the status of Florida water conservation research programs and develop a prioritized Water Conservation Research Agenda to support public water supply utilities and water managers in developing effective and efficient water conservation programs. The workshop was developed in collaboration with the Conserve Florida Group (a consortium of representatives from FDEP, all 5 Water Management Districts, Florida Water Utilities, and UF) and other interested UF Faculty. Sponsored by Conserve Florida Water.

Thursday, November 29, 2007:
The Water Institute hosted a one-day Open Modeling Interface (OpenMI) working group meeting between UF Faculty and OPEN-MI Developer and Principal Investigator Dr. Roger Moore from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Wallingford, UK. The purpose of these meetings was to inform UF Faculty of the OpenMI standard for linking hydrologic and ecologic models, and encourage participation in this international effort. The Open-MI standard is a software component interface definition for the computational core (the engine) of the computational models in the water domain. Sponsored by the UF Water Institute.

November 15-16, 2007:
The Water Institute hosted a free half-day instructional seminar on the use of ArcHydro for water resource management applications. This seminar was open to UF faculty, students, consulting firms, and Water Management District employees. A one-day symposium to present the state of practice for the use of ArcHydro in Florida followed (agenda). The purpose of these meetings was to share information about hydrologic data management and tool development for water research, education, decision-making, visualization and modeling efforts in Florida. Sponsored by the UF Water Institute.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007:
The Water Institute hosted a one day Hydrologic Information Systems Workshop to assist the government of Australia in exploring how hydrologic databases and integrated modeling tools can be used to manage water movement and accounting on a large regional scale. Representatives from the three largest Florida Water Management Districts, USGS, the Australian Meterologic Bureau, the Australia Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Land and Water Division, University of Florida, and University of Texas Austin participated in the meeting. Sponsored by the UF Water Institute.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007:
The Water Institute hosted a one-day Springs Nutrient Workshop with about 70 faculty members, state and local scientists, organizers, managers, regulators and policy experts. The workshop included synthesis presentations on the state of knowledge regarding sources, transformations, sinks, and ecological impacts of nutrients in springs, as well as facilitated breakout sessions to discuss information gaps and research needed to address these gaps. Project sponsored by FDEP.

July 16-20, 2007:
The Water Institute hosted a week-long Agricultural Knowledge Initiative Research Planning Workshop to kick off the USDA/ICAR Sustainable Water Resource Management: U.S. Collaborative Research and Education Project. The workshop included facilitated discussions and field trips and provided an opportunity for the detailed planning of the funded research projects which will be conducted in India. Six participants from three Indian Partner institutions, one participant from North Carolina A&T, and eleven participants from UF attended the workshop. Project sponsored by USDA

Friday, November 4, 2005:
The Water Institute hosted a one day ArcHydro in Florida: Core Principles and Collaboration meeting open to UF faculty, students, consulting firms, Water Management District and other agency employees, as well as external academics. The goal of this meeting was to identify "core principles" behind application of GIS tools and techniques to water resources in the State of Florida. Core principles include data processing tools, data formats, and data sharing.