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The Florida Everglades, the largest subtropical wetland in North America, is in the midst of one of the most comprehensive and expensive environmental restoration efforts in history. Over the past 150 years, the Everglades has suffered substantial degradation due to massive drainage projects, polluting agricultural practices, and urban population growth. Decades of scientific investigation have shown that phosphorus (P) pollution is a primary driver of this environmental decline. This paper reviews how and why specific P‐management goals and strategies have been adopted in support of Everglades restoration, focusing on the often‐contentious process for converting science into restoration policies and standards. We synthesize current P‐management successes, failures, and tradeoffs, including the challenge of balancing multiple hydrologic and water quality restoration goals with the priorities and values of a diverse group of stakeholders. We then highlight promising future directions for Everglades P policy and propose questions to help guide the discussion of future restoration priorities and research needs in this and other complex social–ecological systems. The overall goals of this review are thus twofold: (1) to support an in‐depth understanding of the past, present, and potential future of P management approaches in this globally unique social–ecological system; and (2) to provide a broader framework for understanding how the coevolution of science and policy can support or undermine large‐scale ecosystem restoration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Managed treatment wetlands technology is now used around the world to treat wastewater and stormwater by removing nutrients and other contaminants to obtain a desired water quality. In this paper we present a brief review of a large-scale application of the nature-based technology known as stormwater treatment areas (STAs). These STAs were constructed to treat agricultural and urban runoff to reduce outflow total phosphorus (TP) concentrations to <20 μg P L−1, which is required to protect downstream water quality and preserve the remaining Everglades ecosystem. Five STAs with a total area of approximately 25,000 ha were built at strategic locations to reduce TP loads to the Everglades Protection Area. For the past three decades, these Everglades STAs have done remarkable job by 70 to 85% TP load reduction, with an average outflow TP concentrations of 15-40 μg P L−1. In this Everglades STAs special issue, we present research findings on the influence of both external and internal drivers influencing STA performance and potential adaptive management strategies to enhance treatment efficiency to further reduce outflow TP concentrations. • Introduction of the Everglades STAs – largest constructed treatment wetland network in the world. • Everglades STAs serve as 'kidneys' of the Everglades ecosystem by reducing phosphorus loads to downstream waterbodies. • Phosphorus loading is one of the key drivers regulating treatment efficiency STAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional economic forecasts had consistently underestimated the hypergrowth of South Florida and its need for freshwater from the 1970s through the 1990s. It was hypothesized that the continued rapid growth of urban and farm water use into the 2000–2030 period would undermine efforts to restore the Everglades. To test this hypothesis, the corresponding author had hybridized two widely used regional economic modeling tools: the static, single-period Impact Analysis for Planning (IMPLAN); and the dynamic multiperiod Regional Economic Modeling Inc. (REMI) to forecast population and water use for the period from 2010–2030. In the present paper, these early forecasts are compared to actual census and water use counts for 2010 and 2015. Some of these early forecasts are found to be surprisingly accurate while others seriously overshoot the mark. The on-target forecasts validate the basic hybrid model while the other "deviant" forecasts measure the success of the radical antidrought policies and the region's economic reaction to the financial collapse. This retrospective provides a new metric for measuring actual changes in the paradigm of water consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Everglades is a complex, multiwetland ecosystem that is heavily managed to meet often-competing flood control, water supply, and environmental demands. Using objective measures to balance these demands through operational protocols has always been a challenge in the multibillion-dollar restoration plans for the ecosystem. Physically based models have been the primary tools for planning efforts but for such a complex system, they are laborious and computationally intensive. Development of optimal operations based on iterative runs of these models is a great challenge. This paper presents an inverse modeling framework for formal optimization suited for wetland system operations that helps overcome such limitations. Labor-intensive and computation-intensive physically representative models are emulated in each individual wetland area using an autoregressive artificial neural network with exogenous variables. Using prescribed inflow, outflow, and meteorological input data, such hydrologic model emulators aided by a dimension-reduction technique provide targeted spatial and temporal predictions for water level (stage) within each area of the Everglades, while excluding computation processes that are intensive but insignificant to the predictions. This computer software uses the augmented Lagrangian genetic algorithm technique (subject to linear and nonlinear constraints) to steer predictions of stage spatial variability within individual wetlands towards corresponding desired goals (including restoration targets). In the augmented Lagrangian genetic algorithm, flow releases are coded as the decision variables to be optimized subject to budget, intrahydraulic conveyance, flow capacity, and upstream storage constraints. Optimization is performed by dividing and solving a sequence of subproblems using the genetic algorithm procedures of initialization, selection, elitism, crossover, and mutation. As part of the process, Lagrangian and penalty parameters are updated, and optimization terminates when certain stopping criteria are met. Applying the technique reported in this paper to a specific Everglades restoration plan (the River of Grass Project) showed a sound hydrologic model emulator prediction when compared to the physical model for all wetland areas. Feeding optimal releases predicted by the computer software into a physical model showed equal or better matching of the restoration target with different release patterns compared to that of the physical model base run scenario. Results show that hydraulic conveyance limitations play a significant role in Everglades restoration. Also, results show that employing an adversity tradeoff matrix presented multiple so-called optimal solutions with different optimization weights and a powerful negotiation matrix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper possesses two related objectives. The first is to unite the bid-rent model of von Thünen and urban theorists with historical analysis in the interest of providing a theoretical approach to the comprehension of regional land-cover and land-use change. The second objective is to deploy the theoretical approach in an attempt to account for a specific change process, namely loss of wetlands in South Florida. Recently, the Annals of the Association of American Geographers published a paper addressing this issue ( ). Meindl, Alderman, and Waylen describe the impact of claims making on efforts to drain and sell land in South Florida during a critical period in the early 20th century. The present paper is put forward, in part, to provide additional context. In particular, we identify claims making and the development discourse it legitimated as part of a complex evolution in the region's socionature, and the regimes governing land-cover and land-use change that led to wetlands reclamation. To explain these regime shifts, we criticize conventional bid-rent theory and develop a model integrating urban and agricultural land use whose structure is affected by development. We then deploy this model to the Everglades case, using historical narrative and remotely sensed land-cover data. We conclude the paper calling for integrated theoretical approaches in attempts to comprehend land-cover and land-use change and associated environmental problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper documents the plant assemblage found in large constructed treatment wetlands built for Everglades restoration, the Stormwater Treatment Areas (STAs) in south Florida. Eighty vascular and macroalgae plant species were identified at marsh sites across all the STAs, while an additional 43 species were unique to the marsh-levee ecotone in STA-1W. The STA flora was dominated by herbaceous taxa (83% of species) whose wetland status was primarily obligate, facultative wetland or facultative (collectively 77% of species). Twenty-seven percent of species were introduced non-natives. Six species were common (present in 10% or more of samples) across all the STAs: Chara sp., Hydrilla verticillata, Lemna sp., Najas guadalupensis, Sagittaria lancifolia and Typha domingensis. Only one species, T. domingensis, was common in samples from each STA. Species richness in the STAs was significantly correlated with sampling effort but not with median water depth or wetland age, although there was a weak positive trend with age. A non-parametric estimator of species richness, the Chao 2 metric, predicted a lower bound of 89 species at marsh sites. Treatment cells dominated by submersed aquatic vegetation (SAV) pooled across all the STAs were slightly more species rich than cells dominated by emergent aquatic vegetation (EAV) (64 vs. 57 species, respectively), but there was no consistent pattern in species richness between EAV and SAV cells within individual STAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water conflicts, such as the one in the Everglades, Florida, USA, are complex and dynamic, and there is no theory that yet provides a comprehensive and sufficient explanation for when and how science may be more or less effective. Using both the literature and the water conflict in the Everglades, it is argued that science is most influential in political negotiations when it is created with, not for, stakeholders. The stakeholder negotiators need to know, give feedback on, and eventually vet all stages of the scientific process, which is generating data and possible solutions for them. Such close cooperation is not easy, however. Each group has different goals, jargons, objects to represent phenomena and concepts, and different procedures for working through problems. This paper argues that the political negotiations and technical groups need to jointly create 'a common playing field,' with a shared purpose supported by a negotiated set of concepts, 'boundary objects,' and procedures and norms that they use to coordinate their work. Citation Fuller, B. (2011) Enabling problem-solving between science and politics in water conflicts: impasses and breakthroughs in the Everglades, Florida, USA. Hydrol. Sci. J. 56(4), 576-587. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sea level rise and changes in precipitation patterns due to climate change present a challenge to water resources engineers and planners in southeast Florida with regard to sustainable water supplies and Everglades restoration. Because over half of the urban areas of Miami-Dade and Broward counties, as well as portions of Palm Beach County (home to 5 million people), are at an elevation below 5 ft national geodetic vertical datum (ngvd), protection against sea level rise and coastal migration presents a challenge. Current approaches to water supply will not protect the resilience and prolong the sustainability of the region's water resources. In this paper, the authors outline the potential effects of sea level rise scenarios for coastal southeast Florida and develop a toolbox of options for adaptation for water, wastewater, and storm water utilities to apply. Any given option may not be appropriate for all utilities, and any given utility may deem there to be benefits to pursuing multiple strategies on a timeline in keeping with the latest estimates of sea level rise. The authors also developed milestones to trigger infrastructure investments, as climate changes may occur more rapidly or more slowly than currently projected. While applied to southeast Florida, many of these same toolbox items may be useful for other utilities located in coastal areas with low elevation, high water tables, and significant wet and dry seasons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper describes the development of a two-dimensional, spatially distributed model to simulate coupled hydrologic and phosphorus (P) biogeochemical processes in a 147-ha cell of a 1544-ha stormwater treatment wetland designed to help protect the greater Everglades, FL, USA. The model was used to assess the effects of a suite of feasible management alternatives on the long-term ability of the wetland to sustain total P (TP) removal. The spatial and temporal dynamics of TP retention were simulated under historical (1995–2000) conditions, and under assumptions of removal of short-circuiting channels and ditches, changes in external hydraulic and TP loading, and long-term (>20 years) impacts on soil and water column TP dynamics under current and reduced load conditions. Internal hydrology and transport processes were calibrated against measured tracer concentrations, and subsequently validated against outflow discharge and spatial chloride concentration data. Cycling of P was simulated as first-order uptake and release, with different uptake coefficients for open water/sparse submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) areas (0.2day−1) and dense SAV areas (0.4day−1), and a much lower, uniform release coefficient (1.97×10−4 day−1). The calibration and validation of the P model showed good agreement with field measurements of water column TP concentrations measured at the wetland outlet (calibration RMSE=10.5μgL−1; validation RMSE=15.6μgL−1). Under simulated conditions of preferential channels eliminated, average annual TP treatment effectiveness increased by 25%. When inflow TP loads were assumed to be eliminated after 6 years of loading, the release of accumulated soil P sustained predicted annual average outlet concentrations above 6.7μgL−1 for 18 years, decreasing at a rate of 0.16μgL−1 yr−1. Sensitivity analyses indicate that the most critical model input factors include flow resistance parameters, initial soil TP content, and P cycling parameters compared to initial water level, initial TP concentration in water column, ET and transport parameters. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: Lake Okeechobee in Florida is a major component of the greater Everglades hydrologic system and provides a number of valuable uses to society and nature, such as water supply, navigation, wildlife habitat, and fishery. Suspended solid concentration (SSC) affects directly the lake’s conditions for some of these applications. Therefore, accurate prediction of SSC can enhance the management of the water quality and the long-term protection of Lake Okeechobee. Extensive data, including wind speed, flow velocity, flow direction and SSC, have been collected. Models for predicting suspended solid concentration based on 10 different scenarios are developed using these measurements. Data are divided into two groups as training and testing for the construction of the models. SSC is predicted by the Kriging interpolation technique. Criterions of mean relative error, root mean squared error and coefficient of efficiency (CE) are used to determine the prediction errors of the developed models. In general, mean relative error is below 7% and coefficient of efficiency stays above 0.92 for the models presented. Graphs, results, and interpretations are given in detail in this paper. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper assesses the potential of using spaceborne X-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data for monitoring water-level changes over wetlands. Our analysis is based on three sets of TerraSAR-X (TSX) observations acquired over South Florida's Everglades wetlands during an eight-month period in 2008. The first set was acquired in single HH polarization stripmap mode over our northern study area, consisting of managed wetlands and urban environments. The second set was acquired in dual-polarization stripmap mode over the western half of the same area, consisting mostly of managed wetlands. The third set was also acquired with dual-polarization stripmap mode over our southern study area, consisting of natural flow fresh- and salt-water wetlands in the southern Everglades. The first data set was used for a proof-of-concept study to verify that X-band data can generate coherent interferograms in wetland areas. Interferometric processing of this data set shows a high level of coherence (> 0.35) over both wetland and urban regions, maintaining interferometric phase in all three interferograms spanning 11 days. Surprisingly, phase is maintained over some of the wetlands even for interferograms spanning 33 days. The other two data sets were used to evaluate interferometric coherence of all four polarization modes and to determine dominant scattering mechanism in each wetland environment. Our results show high coherence values (> 0.4) in all polarization modes, with highest values in HH, then VV, and lowest in HV or VH. Interferograms calculated from multipolarization data show very similar fringe patterns regardless of the polarization type, suggesting that the phase information in all polarization data reflects water-level changes in wetlands and that volume scattering may be less important than commonly believed. We also used the two multipolarization data sets to conduct the Pauli decomposition, finding a strong dependence of scattering mechanism on vegetation type. The high interferometric coherence level of all polarization data suggests that a significant part of the X-band scattered signal interacts with lower sections of the vegetation (trunks and branches), because scattering from wind-affected canopies cannot support such a high coherence level. The high spatial resolution of TSX, combined with its ll-day repeat orbit, makes this X-band sensor surprisingly suitable for wetland interferometric SAR applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Everglades Depth Estimation Network (EDEN) is an integrated network of real-time water-level monitoring gages and modeling methods that provides scientists and managers with current (2000–present) online water surface and water depth information for the freshwater domain of the Greater Everglades. This integrated system presents data on a 400-m square grid to assist in (1) large-scale field operations; (2) integration of hydrologic and ecologic responses; (3) supporting biological and ecological assessment of the implementation of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP); and (4) assessing trophic-level responses to hydrodynamic changes in the Everglades. This paper investigates the radial basis function multiquadric method of interpolation to obtain a continuous freshwater surface across the entire Everglades using radio-transmitted data from a network of water-level gages managed by the US Geological Survey (USGS), the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD), and the Everglades National Park (ENP). Since the hydrological connection is interrupted by canals and levees across the study area, boundary conditions were simulated by linearly interpolating along those features and integrating the results together with the data from marsh stations to obtain a continuous water surface through multiquadric interpolation. The absolute cross-validation errors greater than 5cm correlate well with the local outliers and the minimum distance between the closest stations within 2000-m radius, but seem to be independent of vegetation or season. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

During the 1960s, water management practices resulted in the conversion of the wetlands that fringe northeastern Florida Bay (USA) from freshwater/oligohaline herbaceous marshes to dwarf red mangrove forests. Coincident with this conversion were several ecological changes to Florida Bay’s fauna, including reductions in the abundances of top trophic-level consumers: piscivorous fishes, alligators, crocodiles, and wading birds. Because these taxa rely on a common forage base of small demersal fishes, food stress has been implicated as playing a role in their respective declines. In the present study, we monitored the demersal fishes seasonally at six sites over an 8-year time period. During monitoring, extremely high rainfall conditions occurred over a 3.5-year period leading to salinity regimes that can be viewed as “windows” to the area’s natural past and future restored states. In this paper, we: (1) examine the changes in fish communities over the 8-year study period and relate them to measured changes in salinity; (2) make comparisons among marine, brackish and freshwater demersal fish communities in terms of species composition, density, and biomass; and (3) discuss several implications of our findings in light of the intended and unintended water management changes that are planned or underway as part of Everglades restoration. Results suggest the reduction in freshwater flow to Florida Bay over the last several decades has reduced demersal fish populations, and thus prey availability for apex consumers in the coastal wetlands compared to the pre-drainage inferred standard. Furthermore, greater discharge of freshwater toward Florida Bay may result in the re-establishment of pre-1960s fauna, including a more robust demersal-fish community that should prompt increases in populations of several important predatory species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper synthesizes research conducted dusring the first 5–6 years of the Florida Coastal Everglades Long-Term Ecological Research Program (FCE LTER). My objectives are to review our research to date, and to present a new central theme and conceptual approach for future research. Our research has focused on understanding how dissolved organic matter (DOM) from upstream oligotrophic marshes interacted with a marine source of the limiting nutrient, phosphorus (P), to control productivity in the oligohaline estuarine ecotone. We have been working along freshwater to marine transects in two drainage basins located in Everglades National Park (ENP). The Shark River Slough transect (SRS) has a direct connection to the Gulf of Mexico, providing this estuarine ecotone with a source of marine P. The oligohaline ecotone along our southern Everglades transect (TS/Ph), however, is separated from this marine P source by the Florida Bay estuary. We originally hypothesized an ecosystem productivity peak in the SRS ecotone, driven by the interaction of marine P and Everglades DOM, but no such productivity peak in the TS/Ph ecotone because of this lack of marine P. Our research to date has tended to show the opposite pattern, however, with many ecosystem components showing enhanced productivity in the TS/Ph ecotone, but not in the SRS ecotone. Water column P concentrations followed a similar pattern, with unexpectedly high P in the TS/Ph ecotone during the dry season. Our organic geochemical research has shown that Everglades DOM is more refractory than originally hypothesized. We have also begun to understand the importance of detrital organic matter production and transport to ecotone dynamics and as the base of aquatic food webs. Our future research will build on this substantial body of knowledge about these oligotrophic estuaries. We will direct our efforts more strongly on biophysical dynamics in the oligohaline ecotone regions. Specifically, we will be focusing on inputs to these regions from four primary water sources: freshwater Everglades runoff, net precipitation, marine inputs, and groundwater. We are hypothesizing that dry season groundwater inputs of P will be particularly important to TS/Ph ecotone dynamics because of longer water residence times in this area. Our organic geochemical, biogeochemical, and ecosystem energetics work will focus more strongly on the importance of detrital organics and will take advantage of a key Everglades Restoration project, scheduled for 2008 or 2009, that will increase freshwater inputs to our SRS transect only. Finally, we will also begin to investigate the human dimensions of restoration, and of a growing population in south Florida that will become increasingly dependent on the Everglades for critical ecosystem services (including fresh water) even as its growth presents challenges to Everglades sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2000 the US. Congress authorized the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP). At an estimated cost of $7.8 billion, it represents the most ambitious effort in recent U.S. history to reform a water management infrastructure. This infrastructure is located in South Florida and controls water in the Everglades. As the tide of this plan indicates, the effort to reform this water manipulation system is being promoted as a means to restore the health of the Everglades eco-system. By placing CERP within a historical context, the author of this paper demonstrates that CERP is a continuation of the historic process to utilize the Everglades — its land, water and soil — as a means to maximize capital accumulation. This process has been led and shaped by economic elites and producer groups, which is consistent with the business dominance view of the policymaking process. Finally the portrayal of CERP as an effort to restore the health of the Everglades eco-system obfuscates the fact that it is predominately a water supply plan designed to further urban growth, and that CERP contains some significant hazards for the environment in the Everglades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A landscape modeling system called the Across Trophic-Level System Simulation (or ATLSS) has been developed in an effort to project the consequences of proposed water regulation plans for restoration of the South Florida Everglades. The ATLSS Landscape Fish Model (ALFISH) is a component of the ATLSS package (written in C++), which is used to provide dynamic measures of the spatially-explicit food resources available to wading birds, namely fish. The original (serial) ALFISH model requires as much as 30h for 31-year simulations of specified scenarios. The model’s execution time has been successfully improved (by a factor of 4.5) by partitioning its data input and executing the model simultaneously (in parallel) on those partitions. This paper demonstrates how the model’s communications between partitioned data can be blocked to simulate compartmentalization effects on the input data. Minimal effects (below 1%) on the output of the original (serial) version are demonstrated. Regarding portability, both models (serial and parallel) have been successfully executed on two different computing environments: an SMP (Symmetric Multi-Processor) with 14 processors and a 14-processor network cluster. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Eutrophication is a widespread global scale pollution problem. Agricultural areas are generally the main contributors to eutrophication, whereas sewage and industrial discharges, which usually receive some treatment prior to discharge, are a secondary source. This is mostly the case of the ultra-oligotrophic Florida Everglades, where natural water sources are often enriched by nutrients from large-scale industrial agricultural stormwater runoff. Remediation of these agricultural waters cannot be conducted with the usual environmental engineering solutions, and in this context ecological engineering approaches such as constructed wetlands are much more suitable. Moreover, these wetlands provide other ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration or habitat provisioning. In this paper we have implemented a mechanistic phosphorus model into a time-space-dependent mathematical simulation platform (COMSOL Multiphysics™) which has been calibrated with wetland mesocosm data. Subsequently we have evaluated different characteristics of constructed wetland physical elements such as internal walls and baffles, different types of inlets, parallel and series operation, and increase in hydraulic retention time (HRT) to study total phosphorus (TP) removal performance and to improve efficiency. Simulation results indicate that wetland mesocosm soils released dissolved organic phosphorus which was washed out together with the effluent, making very difficult to attain a concentration lower than a target of 10 μg TP L−1, as required to protect the Everglades. Simulations showed that the design based on combination of the bottom inlet together with parallel operation extensively improves efficiency. Target TP concentrations can be achieved with this design together with an increase on 25% of hydraulic retention time. With this study we demonstrate the usefulness of the model for detailed designs, opening the door for its use in field scale applications. Image 1 • Pollution caused by agricultural drainage waters is a worldwide problem. • Constructed wetlands are very suitable to prevent agricultural drainage pollution. • A complex model was developed to study phosphorus removal. • The model is very useful for detailed designs and field scale applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing scientifically credible tools for measuring the success of ecological restoration projects is a difficult and a non-trivial task. Yet, reliable measures of the general health and ecological integrity of ecosystems are critical for assessing the success of restoration programs. The South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Task Force (Task Force), which helps coordinate a multi-billion dollar multi-organizational effort between federal, state, local and tribal governments to restore the Florida Everglades, is using a small set of system-wide ecological indicators to assess the restoration efforts. A team of scientists and managers identified eleven ecological indicators from a field of several hundred through a selection process using 12 criteria to determine their applicability as part of a system-wide suite. The 12 criteria are: (1) is the indicator relevant to the ecosystem? (2) Does it respond to variability at a scale that makes it applicable to the entire system? (3) Is the indicator feasible to implement and is it measureable? (4) Is the indicator sensitive to system drivers and is it predictable? (5) Is the indicator interpretable in a common language? (6) Are there situations where an optimistic trend with regard to an indicator might suggest a pessimistic restoration trend? (7) Are there situations where a pessimistic trend with regard to an indicator may be unrelated to restoration activities? (8) Is the indicator scientifically defensible? (9) Can clear, measureable targets be established for the indicator to allow for assessments of success? (10) Does the indicator have specificity to be able to result in corrective action? (11) What level of ecosystem process or structure does the indicator address? (12) Does the indicator provide early warning signs of ecological change? In addition, a two page stoplight report card was developed to assist in communicating the complex science inherent in ecological indicators in a common language for resource managers, policy makers and the public. The report card employs a universally understood stoplight symbol that uses green to indicate that targets are being met, yellow to indicate that targets have not been met and corrective action may be needed and red to represent that targets are far from being met and corrective action is required. This paper presents the scientific process and the results of the development and selection of the criteria, the indicators and the stoplight report card format and content. The detailed process and results for the individual indicators are presented in companion papers in this special issue of Ecological Indicators. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: We have developed a comprehensive ecological indicator for invasive exotic plants, a human-influenced component of the Everglades that could threaten the success of the restoration initiative. Following development of a conceptual ecological model for invasive exotic species, presented as a companion paper in this special issue, we developed criteria to evaluate existing invasive exotic monitoring programs for use in developing invasive exotic performance measures. We then used data from the selected monitoring programs to define specific performance measures, using species presence and abundance as the basis of the indicator for invasive exotic plants. We then developed a series of questions used to evaluate region and/or individual species status with respect to invasion. Finally, we used an expert panel who had answered the questions for invasive exotic plants in the Everglades Lake Okeechobee model to develop a stoplight restoration report card to communicate invasive exotic plant status. The report card system provides a way to effectively evaluate and present indicator data to managers, policy makers, and the public using a uniform format among indicators. Collectively, the model, monitoring assessment, performance measures, and report card enable us to evaluate how invasive plants are impacting the restoration program and how effectively that impact is being managed. Applied through time, our approach also allows us to follow the progress of management actions to control the spread and reduce the impacts of invasive species and can be easily applied and adapted to other large-scale ecosystem projects. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]