Download or read book Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Strategy and Long term Recovery Plan written by Bradley F. Brown and published by Nova Science Publishers. This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Deepwater Horizon oil spill was one of the worst man-made environmental disasters our country has ever experienced. The oil spill dramatically affected the lives, jobs, and futures of millions of Gulf Coast residents. The Gulf of Mexico is a natural resource of vital importance which provides immeasurable benefits and services to citizens throughout the United States. The Gulf is also critical to nation-wide commerce. This book examines the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Strategy and Long Term Recovery Plan with a focus on facilitating long-term vitality through restoring and conserving habitat, restoring water quality, replenishing and protecting living coastal and marine resources, and on making the Gulf of Mexico a healthier and more resilient place for the communities that depend on its wealth of resources.

Download or read book Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Strategy and Long term Recovery Plan written by Bradley F. Brown and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Deepwater Horizon oil spill was one of the worst man-made environmental disasters our country has ever experienced. The oil spill dramatically affected the lives, jobs, and futures of millions of Gulf Coast residents. The Gulf of Mexico is a natural resource of vital importance which provides immeasurable benefits and services to citizens throughout the United States. The Gulf is also critical to nation-wide commerce. This book examines the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Strategy and Long Term Recovery Plan with a focus on facilitating long-term vitality through restoring and conserving habitat, restoring water quality, replenishing and protecting living coastal and marine resources, and on making the Gulf of Mexico a healthier and more resilient place for the communities that depend on its wealth of resources.

Download or read book Gulf of Mexico Regional Ecosystem Restoration Strategy written by Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force (U.S.) and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Many of the Gulf's challenges are complex and long-standing, and correcting the problems will require sustained and consistent effort over time. The Task Force's Strategy was developed through a review of existing plans and efforts and significant public outreach during the last year. The Strategy builds on ongoing work and priorities of each of the Gulf Coast states, local communities, federal partners, academics and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). The restoration framework consists of four overarching goals to guide the collective actions at the local, state and federal level that are necessary to reverse the ongoing decline and restore the Gulf Coast's ecosystem. The Task Force's goals for the Gulf Coast restoration effort are the following: 1. Restore and conserve habitat 2. Restore water quality 3. Replenish and protect living coastal and marine resources 4. Enhance community resilience The Strategy includes enhanced community resilience as a goal in order to highlight the connectedness of ecosystem restoration with the well-being and sustainability of coastal communities. This goal also emphasizes the planning and technical assistance needs of vulnerable coastal communities as they assess risks, plan for and rebound from natural disasters, and implement sustainable development approaches. As progress is made to improve water quality and protect and enhance the Gulf of Mexico's habitats and resources, communities benefit from improved ecosystem services, such as better storm protection and healthier fisheries. A key function of the Task Force is to help advance state and federal activities that will achieve the overarching restoration goals. The Task Force intends to help member agencies address process and other barriers, facilitate program implementation and alignment, and better leverage scientific expertise and fiscal resources in support of Gulf Coast restoration. In addition to encouraging better collaboration among state and federal agencies, partnerships play an integral role in restoring ecosystem functions throughout the Gulf region. The Task Force believes it is critically important to foster an inclusive dialogue and expand on public/private partnerships in order to achieve ecosystem restoration in the Gulf of Mexico ..."--Executive summary p. 6.

Download or read book Gulf Restoration written by United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book An Approach for Assessing U S Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by . This book was released on 2022-12-31 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Valued for its ecological richness and economic value, the U.S. Gulf of Mexico is under substantial pressure from human activities. The Deepwater Horizon platform explosion and oil spill significantly damaged Gulf ecosystems and led to the largest ecological restoration investment in history. The unprecedented number and diversity of restoration activities provide valuable information for future restoration efforts, but assessment efforts are hampered by many factors, including the need to evaluate the interaction of multiple stressors and consider long-term environmental trends such as sea level rise, increasing hurricane intensity, and rising water temperatures. This report offers a comprehensive approach to assess restoration activities beyond the project scale in the face of a changing environment. A main component of this approach is using different types of scientific evidence to develop "multiple lines of evidence" to evaluate restoration efforts at regional scales and beyond, especially for projects that may be mutually reinforcing (synergistic) or in conflict (antagonistic). Because Gulf of Mexico ecosystems cross political boundaries, increased coordination and collaboration is needed, especially to develop standardized data collection, analysis, synthesis, and reporting. With these improvements, program-level adaptive management approaches can be used more effectively to assess restoration strategies against the backdrop of long-term environmental trends.

Download or read book America s Gulf Coast written by Ray Mabus and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 126 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This report will focus on these three central requirements for recovery in the Gulf Coast: the environment; the economy; and health and human services. These three areas are inextricably linked - what happens to the ecosystem of the Gulf affects its economy and the welfare of all Gulf Coast residents. As the Gulf ecosystem is rebuilt, economic activity will rise, jobs will be created, and the region's health will improve. The report will also discuss the role of nongovernmental organizations and community service in addressing each of the three issue areas"--Page 3.

Download or read book Initial Comprehensive Plan written by Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council (U.S.) and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 22 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Comprehensive Plan Update 2016 written by Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council (U.S.) and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 31 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Revisiting the RESTORE Act written by United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Understanding the Long Term Evolution of the Coupled Natural Human Coastal System written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2018-11-17 with total page 157 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The U.S. Gulf Coast provides a valuable setting to study deeply connected natural and human interactions and feedbacks that have led to a complex, interconnected coastal system. The physical landscape in the region has changed significantly due to broad-scale, long-term processes such as coastal subsidence and river sediment deposition as well as short-term episodic events such as hurricanes. Modifications from human activities, including building levees and canals and constructing buildings and roads, have left their own imprint on the natural landscape. This coupled natural-human coastal system and the individual aspects within it (physical, ecological, and human) are under increased pressure from accelerating environmental stressors such as sea level rise, intensifying hurricanes, and continued population increase with its accompanying coastal development. Promoting the resilience and maintaining the habitability of the Gulf Coast into the future will need improved understanding of the coupled natural-human coastal system, as well as effective sharing of this understanding in support of decision-making and policies. Understanding the Long-term Evolution of the Coupled Natural-Human Coastal System presents a research agenda meant to enable a better understanding of the multiple and interconnected factors that influence long-term processes along the Gulf Coast. This report identifies scientific and technical gaps in understanding the interactions and feedbacks between human and natural processes, defines essential components of a research and development program in response to the identified gaps, and develops priorities for critical areas of research.

Download or read book Gulf of Mexico Regional Ecosystem Restoration Strategy written by Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force (U.S.) and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Opportunities for the Gulf Research Program Monitoring Ecosystem Restoration and Deep Water Environments written by Gulf Research Program and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2015-03-26 with total page 141 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Environmental monitoring in the Gulf of Mexico poses extensive challenges and significant opportunities. Multiple jurisdictions manage this biogeographically and culturally diverse region, whose monitoring programs tend to be project-specific by design and funding. As a result, these programs form more of a monitoring patchwork then a network. At the same time, the Gulf monitoring community faces a unique opportunity to organize and think differently about monitoring - including how best to allocate and manage the resources for this large marine ecosystem and its communities - as a result of the infusion of resources for environmental restoration and related activities after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Opportunities for the Gulf Research Program: Monitoring Ecosystem Restoration and Deep Water Environments summarizes a Gulf Research Program workshop held on September 3-4, 2014 in New Orleans, Louisiana. The workshop gathered about 40 participants from the energy industry, state and federal government, academia, and nongovernmental organizations to examine two broad issues that were seen as time-sensitive opportunities in light of significant investments in the Gulf for restoration and accelerating development of energy resources in the deep Gulf: monitoring ecosystem restoration and deep water environments. As participants explored potential opportunities for the Program to consider, they noted the essential role that communication and outreach play in successful monitoring, and the importance of applying an ecosystem service approach to monitoring, forging partnerships among stakeholders, and supporting efforts to organize and manage monitoring data.

Download or read book Gulf Coast Restoration written by Congressional Research Service and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2017-09-18 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Gulf of Mexico coastal environment (Gulf Coast) stretches over approximately 600,000 square miles across five U.S. states: Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. It is home to more than 22 million people and more than 15,000 species of sea life. Efforts are ongoing to restore this environment, which has been damaged by specific events such as the Deepwater Horizon spill and hurricanes as well as by disturbances to wetlands and water quality from human alterations and other impacts. The issue for Congress is the implementation, funding, and performance of congressionally sanctioned restoration efforts for the Gulf Coast. Ongoing Efforts to Restore the Gulf Coast. The Gulf Coast environment has been degraded over time due to, among other things, altered hydrology, loss of barrier islands and coastal wetland habitat, issues associated with low water quality, and other human impacts and natural processes. Preexisting environmental issues throughout the Gulf Coast have been affected and in some cases exacerbated by natural hazards and manmade catastrophes. Among other events, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita caused widespread damage to wetland and coastal areas along the Gulf. A number of federal agencies-the Army Corps of Engineers, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Environmental Protection Agency, among others-are engaged in ongoing efforts to restore areas or aspects of the Gulf Coast environments. Significant state and local efforts to restore the Gulf Coast also have been undertaken, in some cases in consultation with the federal government. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill resulted in a new set of restoration efforts and funds. Restoration in Response to Deepwater Horizon. The Deepwater Horizon explosion on April 20, 2010, resulted in an unprecedented discharge of oil in U.S. waters, eventually oiling more than 1,100 miles of U.S. Gulf Coast shoreline. As an identified responsible party, the energy company BP is liable for response (i.e., cleanup) costs, as well as specified economic damages and natural resource damages related to the spill. Efforts to mitigate and recover from the Deepwater Horizon spill have initiated several new processes that are expected to supplement ongoing Gulf Coast restoration work. In particular, three major processes are likely to significantly affect restoration work going forward: first, the dissemination of approximately $5.3 billion in Clean Water Act penalties, as required in the RESTORE Act (P.L. 112-141); second, the dissemination of $2.55 billion in criminal penalties from responsible parties by the nonprofit National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), as required under relevant court settlements; and third, the assessment and provision of $8.8 billion in Natural Resources Damage Assessment (NRDA) penalties under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, as amended (P.L. 101-380). Initial funding under NFWF and NRDA early restoration efforts was first released in 2013 and 2014, respectively, whereas the Treasury Department and Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council began to release funding for certain planning activities under the RESTORE Act in 2015. Congress may be interested in the effect of the efforts on ongoing Gulf Coast restoration, coordination between the multiple aforementioned processes, and the effectiveness of these efforts going forward. As a result of differences in the origins and implementation of each effort, Congress has varying degrees of oversight and control over the dissemination of funding to restore the Gulf Coast. Restoration of the Gulf Coast is complicated from a congressional perspective because multiple restoration processes are interrelated but occur largely outside of the traditional appropriations process (including funds being used by nonfederal sources).

Download or read book Managing Biological and Ecological Systems written by Brian D. Fath and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2020-07-29 with total page 445 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bringing together a wealth of knowledge, Environmental Management Handbook, Second Edition, gives a comprehensive overview of environmental problems, their sources, their assessment, and their solutions. Through in-depth entries and a topical table of contents, readers will quickly find answers to questions about environmental problems and their corresponding management issues. This six-volume set is a reimagining of the award-winning Encyclopedia of Environmental Management, published in 2013, and features insights from more than 400 contributors, all experts in their field. The experience, evidence, methods, and models used in studying environmental management are presented here in six stand-alone volumes, arranged along the major environmental systems. Features The first handbook that demonstrates the key processes and provisions for enhancing environmental management Addresses new and cutting-edge topics on ecosystem services, resilience, sustainability, food–energy–water nexus, socio-ecological systems, and more Provides an excellent basic knowledge on environmental systems, explains how these systems function, and offers strategies on how to best manage them Includes the most important problems and solutions facing environmental management today In this second volume, Managing Biological and Ecological Systems, the reader is introduced to the general concepts and processes of the biosphere and all its systems. This volume explains how these systems function and provides strategies on how to best manage them. It serves as an excellent resource for finding basic knowledge on the biosphere and ecological systems and includes important problems and solutions that environmental managers face today. This book practically demonstrates the key processes, methods, and models used in studying environmental management.

Download or read book Environmental Impact II written by G. Passerini and published by WIT Press. This book was released on 2014-05-14 with total page 769 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book contains papers presented at the 2nd International Conference on Environmental and Economic Impacts on Sustainable Development incorporating Environmental Economics, Toxicology and Brownfields. Following the success of the first meeting held in the New Forest, home of the Wessex Institute of Technology, in 2012, it considers the pressing issues related to environmental impacts in order to provide complete solutions. The included papers discuss how to assess the impact of economic constraints on the environment, considering the social aspects as well as any resulting environmental damage. The overuse of natural resources and the resulting pollution of the environment need to be better understood in financial terms. Uncontrolled development can result in damage to the environment in terms of the release of toxic substances and hazardous waste. The increasing number of new chemical compounds poses a major challenge to the environment as it is difficult in many cases to predict their effects and take appropriate decisions. Their economic impact can be particularly challenging. The book examines issues related to whether some forms of development are compatible with environmental protection, particularly in cases of possible serious contamination and toxicity. The demand for development land has led to the reuse of properties that have been abandoned for a variety of reasons. Many of them are brownfields, sites which have deteriorated in different ways, including by contamination. These sites are usually a burden in terms of economic losses and contribute to the detriment of the quality of life of entire neighbourhoods. Rehabilitation of local fields, particularly those that are contaminated can be an expensive undertaking and require not only technical solutions but the involvement of financial, regulatory and community stakeholders. Fundamental to this premise is the analysis of the risks involved and the development of appropriate strategies. The papers address problems of great importance discussing more constructive and progressive approaches to ensure sustainability. A major motivation for the meeting is to learn from past failures, to avoid repeating similar mistakes, while attempting to prevent emerging threats to the environmental and ecological systems. Topics covered include: Environmental policies and planning; Environmental assessments; Development issues; Sustainable cities; Economic analysis; Natural resources management; Energy and the environment; Food and the environment; Ecosystems health; Soil contamination; Brownfields rehabilitation; Water resources management; Air and water pollution; Toxicity studies; Environmental health risk; Risk analysis; Community participation; Legislation and regulations.

Download or read book The Gulf Research Program written by Gulf Research Program and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2014-09-15 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2010 the Deepwater Horizon explosion and fire in the Gulf of Mexico caused the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history, resulting in significant impacts on the region\'s environment and residents. Legal settlements with the companies held responsible led the federal government to ask the National Academy of Sciences to form and administer a 30-year program to enhance oil system safety, human health, and environmental resources in the Gulf of Mexico and other U.S. continental shelf areas where offshore oil and gas exploration and production occur or are under consideration. The new Gulf Research Program will receive $500 million to support activities using three broad approaches: research and development, education and training, and environmental monitoring. The Gulf Research Program: A Strategic Vision establishes the Program\'s foundation and introduces its mission, goals, and objectives. It describes some initial activities and sets out the Program\'s vision for contributing lasting benefit to the Gulf region and the nation. The Program is an extraordinary opportunity to foster science on a regional scale and over the long term. The document will be of interest to scientists, health professionals, engineers, and educators who wish to learn about, collaborate with, and submit proposals to the Program, and to all those who share the goal of enhancing resilience in areas where offshore energy production, vibrant communities, and dynamic ecosystems coexist.

Download or read book South Florida Ecosystem Restoration written by and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Initiative is a complex, long-term effort to restore the South Florida ecosystem including the Everglades that involves federal, state, local, and tribal entities, as well as public and private interests. In response to growing signs of the ecosystem's deterioration, federal agencies established the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Task Force in 1993 to coordinate ongoing federal activities. The Water Resources Development Act of 1996 formalized the Task Force; designated the Secretary of the Interior as its Chair; and expanded its membership to include state, local, and tribal representatives. The Task Force is charged with coordinating and facilitating the overall restoration effort. Restoring the ecosystem, which covers 18,000 square miles, or about 11.5 million acres, could take up to 50 years and will require the continuous effort and commitment of all the agencies involved.