As probability projections are developed they will be made available to
our water management collaborators for evaluation and feedback regarding
their usefulness. Figure 4
is an example of the kind of decision support
tools that can be developed in this way. Our collaborators, in the
meantime, will be working to determine the relationships between the
past climate regimes and the variables used at the water districts in
making management decisions, such as basin streamflows and reservoir
inflows (at the Tampa-based SWFWMD) and groundwater response (SJRWMD in
north-central Florida). We will also be looking to find paleoclimate
indices (reconstructions) tied more closely to the Florida hydrological
factors directly affecting water management. The two best hopes for
doing this are tree-ring work being done at the University of Arkansas
on Florida baldcypress (Stahle) and research at the University of South
Florida (Tampa) on Florida calcitic cave deposits, with potential
reconstructions of 2,000 years or more (Beynen).
