Summary of Everglades Restoration

1
Emergy Evaluation of Ecological Services the
costs and benefits of Everglades Restoration
Emergy Benefit/Cost of Restoration
Mark T. Brown, Matt Cohen, Eliana Bardi, and Wes
Ingwersen Center for Environmental Policy/Center
for Wetlands University of Florida
Net benefit of active restoration
The contribution of environmental work to the
watershed of Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades
of Florida can be estimated using emergy and its
economic equivalent, emdollars. Emergy evaluates
the work that generates real wealth and is useful
for selecting those alternatives that contribute
most to both the economy of humans and to
environmental sustainability. Emergy and
emdollars put environmental and economic items on
a common basis. Economic potentials are
increased by those developments that also
maximize values in the environment. These
calculations show the real wealth contribution of
the water resources of the Everglades watershed.
In 1975 a set of projects on the Everglades and
south Florida was conducted at the Center for
Wetlands of the University of Florida sponsored
by the U.S. Department of Interior and the
Florida Division of State Planning in
Tallahassee. Energy systems methods of modeling,
evaluation, and computer simulation were applied
to ecosystems, counties, and the region as a
whole. The models were numerically calibrated
bringing heterogeneous data together. Many of the
recommendations in that earlier study are being
considered and employed in current restoration
efforts.
Net benefit of restoration activities is the net
increase in restoration of ecosystem services
when compared to natural recovery
Summary of Everglades Restoration Note Location
Emvalue (Billions Em/yr) 1
Annual total Em Everglades System 3.96 2 Net
increase in emergy value of Env. Services 1.02 3
Projected cost in dollars 7.6 4 Em/ cost
ratio over 36 years (1.02 E9 Em/yr)(36
yr)/(7.6 E9) 4.8/1
4.8/1
Net Benefit Ratio