U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. Geological Survey

Fact Sheet 2017–3069

Version 1.1, January 2018

Prepared as part of the U.S. Geological Survey Greater Everglades Priority Ecosystems Science and in collaboration with the

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as part of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan REstoration COordination and

VERification (RECOVER) Program

Everglades Depth Estimation Network (EDEN)—

A Decade of Serving Hydrologic Information to Scientists and Resource Managers 

Printed on recycled paper

Introduction

The Everglades Depth Estimation Network (EDEN) 

provides scientists and resource managers with regional 

maps of daily water levels and depths in the freshwater part 

of the Greater Everglades landscape (fig. 1). The EDEN 

domain includes all or parts of five Water Conservation Areas, 

Big Cypress National Preserve, Pennsuco Wetlands, and 

Everglades National Park (figs. 2, 3). Daily water-level maps 

are interpolated from water-level data at monitoring gages 

(figs. 2, 4), and depth is estimated by using a digital elevation 

model of the land surface. Online datasets provide time series of 

daily water levels at gages and rainfall and evapotranspiration 

data (https://sofia.usgs.gov/eden/). These datasets are used 

by scientists and resource managers to guide large-scale field 

operations, describe hydrologic changes, and support biological 

and ecological assessments that measure ecosystem response 

to the implementation of the Comprehensive Everglades 

Restoration Plan (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1999). EDEN 

water-level data have been used in a variety of biological and 

ecological studies including (1) the health of American alligators 

as a function of water depth (Fujisaki and others, 2009), (2) the 

variability of post-fire landscape dynamics in relation to water 

depth (Jones and others, 2013), (3) the habitat quality for wading 

birds with dynamic habitat selection (Beerens and others, 2015), 

and (4) an evaluation of the habitat of the Cape Sable seaside 

sparrow (fig. 5). 

EDEN Water-Level Model

Water levels across the EDEN domain are computed 

by using the EDEN surface-water model, version 2 (referred 

to as the V2 model). Input to the model includes continuous 

water-level measurements at 247 gaging stations, including 

freshwater-marsh gaging stations, canal stations, and coastal 

(tidal) stations operated by the Big Cypress National Preserve 

(BCNP), Everglades National Park (ENP), South Florida Water 

Management District (SFWMD), and the U.S. Geological 

Survey (USGS) (fig. 2). The V2 model interpolates the 

daily median water level from 223 of these 247 stations to 

generate daily water-level surfaces (Telis and others, 2015).

The remaining 24 stations are available for quality-assurance 

evaluations and estimation of missing or erroneous data. 

Enhancements of the V2 model relative to the original EDEN 

surface-water model (Pearlstine and others, 2007) include 

adjustments to water-level input data, improved understanding 

AAXXXX_fig 01

Depth

Water Depth in Inches

Water Depth in Centimeters

0

50

0

100

150

200

250

75

100

25

50

Water Level

Water Level in Inches NAVD88

Water Level in Centimeters NAVD88

-100

0 0

50 100

100

150

200

200

300

400

500

GEORGIA

FLORIDA

ALABAMA

Area

shown

GULF

OF MEXICO

Figure 1. Everglades Depth Estimation Network-generated 

water-level and water-depth surfaces for August 1, 2017. 
Florida City Canal

South New River Canal

L-2 Canal

Watson River

Bolles Canal

Hillsboro Canal

L-40 Canal

Snapper Creek Canal

Tamiami Canal

BROWARD

COLLIER

HENDRY

LEE

MIAMI-DADE

MONROE

PALM

BEACH

WCA1

BIG CYPRESS

NATIONAL

PRESERVE

EVERGLADES

NATIONAL PARK

WCA2A

WCA2B

EDEN 13

WCA3A

WCA3B Pennsuco

Wetlands

(!

EXPLANATION

Water conservation area (WCA)

and designation

EDEN water-level stations

by operating agency

Big Cypress National Preserve

Everglades National Park

South Florida Water Management District

U.S. Geological Survey

EDEN model domain

Site not used in water-surface

 elevation model

WCA1

GEORGIA

FLORIDA

ALABAMA

Area

shown

GULF

OF

MEXICO

GULF OF

MEXICO

Florida Bay

Base from Esri Data & Maps, 2010 0 5 10 15 20 MILES

U.S. Geological Survey Everglades Depth Estimation Network, 2011

Universal Transverse Mercator projection, zone 17

0 5 10 15 20 KILOMETERS

81°30' 81°00' 80°30'

26°30'

26°00'

25°30'

25°00'

Figure 2. Everglades Depth Estimation Network model domain and location of monitoring gages (modified from 

Petkewich and others, 2016). 
laf16-0758_fig02

Subareas Merged subareas

WCA1

WCA2A

WCA3A WCA2B

WCA3B

Pennsuco

Wetlands

BIG CYPRESS

NATIONAL

PRESERVE

EVERGLADES

NATIONAL PARK

Figure 3. Five subareas merged to 

represent the entire Everglades Depth 

Estimation Network model domain 

(modified from Telis and others, 2015).

Figure 4. Field water-level monitoring gage EDEN 13. Photograph 

by Michael Oliver, U.S. Geological Survey.

Figure 5. The Cape Sable seaside sparrow in Everglades National 

Park. Photograph by David A. La Puma, New Jersey Audubon, from 

Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CSSS1.jpg, 

licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.
of flow dynamics, the installation of an elevation benchmark 

network, the expansion of the EDEN domain to cover a part of 

southern BCNP and northwestern ENP, and the development 

of subdomain models. The subdomain models were developed 

for five subareas (fig. 3) to better simulate the discontinuities 

of water-surface levels among Water Conservation Areas. The 

resulting water-level surfaces are merged to generate the final 

water-level surface for the entire EDEN domain (fig. 1) (Telis 

and others, 2015). Many of the gages in the current network 

were not in operation prior to 2000 and required hindcasting 

to estimate past water levels. Water levels and depths for these 

gages were hindcasted to 1991 

by using 214 empirical models 

(Conrads and others, 2014).

EDEN Web Applications

EDEN has evolved from 

primarily serving waterlevel and water-depth maps 

to also providing scientists 

and resource managers with 

analysis and presentation tools 

that describe and analyze 

environmental response to 

hydrologic changes and assess 

system-wide management 

strategies. This evolution 

includes hindcasted datasets, 

statistical analyses, and 

visualization tools. Two 

of these applications are 

described below.

Explore and View EDEN (EVE) 

Application

The Explore and View 

EDEN (EVE) application 

(https://sofia.usgs.gov/eden/

eve/index.php) allows users 

to view and download waterlevel, rainfall, and potential 

evapotranspiration data in 

graphical or tabular formats. 

Up to five gaging stations are 

selected by the user from the 

list of EDEN stations provided 

in the application (fig. 6). The 

selected timescale for waterlevel data can be daily (1991 

to present) or hourly (2000 to 

present). Daily rainfall data 

and evapotranspiration data 

also are available. For more 

information on rainfall and 

evapotranspiration data, refer 

to Pathak (2008) and Jacobs 

and others (2008), respectively.

Cape Sable Seaside Sparrow (CSSS) Viewer Application

The endangered Cape Sable seaside sparrow (CSSS; fig. 5) 

is one of eight remaining subspecies of seaside sparrow. The 

most current, known distributions of the CSSS are restricted to 

seven separate subpopulation areas (A–F and AX) in the ENP 

(fig. 7). Previous studies have shown clear correlations between 

water depth and CSSS population densities, with successful 

nesting depending on specific hydrologic conditions (Dong and 

others, 2006). The EDEN CSSS Viewer application (https://

sofia.usgs.gov/eden/csss/index.php) was developed to evaluate 

water depths at CSSS habitat on a historical and real-time basis. 

Explore and View EDEN (EVE)

Timeseries

Start:

End:

Site List

Parameters

Views

Daily Median Water Level

Total Daily Rainfall

Total Daily Potential Evapotranspiration

2013-01-01

2014-12-31

Select multiple gages by

holding the control (PC)

or command (Mac) key.

3A10

3A11

3A12

3A9

3AN1W1

3ANE

3ANE_GW

3ANW

3ANW_GW

3AS

3AS3W1

3ASW

3B_SE

3BS1W1

A13

ANGEL

BARW4

BARW6A

BCA1

BCA10

Water level

Daily median

Hourly

Rainfall

Evapotranspiration

Graph

Table

Update Selection

Send feedback

about EVE

BCA10 BCA11 BCA12 BCA13 BCA14

Download selected data

Go to EDEN station page for BCA10

Go to BCNP for complete datasets for this gage

Operating Agency: BCNP (Agency POC)

Vertical Conversion at Gage (feet) used by EDEN

(NGVD29 TO NAVD88): -1.43 ft.

Available EDEN data Period of record

Water Level (measured)

Rainfall

Evapotranspiration

1990-01-01 – 2016-06-13

2002-01-01 – 2016-03-31

1995-06-01 – 2014-12-31

Legend

BCA10

BCA11

BCA12

BCA13

BCA14

Observed data

Estimated data

Hindcasted data

Dry conditions

Recent water levels subject to

revision. Non-final data are either

real-time or provisional.

14

12

10

8

6

4

2

0

4

2

0

5

0

Jan 13 Apr 13 Jul 13 Oct 13 Jan 14 Apr 14 Jul 14 Oct 14

Feet (NAVD88) in. mm

Figure 6. Screen capture of web application showing data retrieval using the Explore and View EDEN 

application, for years 2013 and 2014. Plots shown are for daily median water level, total daily rainfall, 

and total daily potential evapotranspiration at gages BCA10, BCA11, BCA12, BCA13, and BCA14.
Introduction Instructions Water-Depth Map Summary Statistics

Water

depth

Ground

elevation

(NAVD88)

Four-year

hydroperiod

Mean water

depth

(in.)

18.1

11.8

6.7

0

46

157 400

30

17

0

-3.9

-13.9

-43.2

-58.4

220.3

200.3

163

138.2

21.7

19.1

14.2

11.1

56.8

46.7

33.7

26.7

0 0

(cm)

(in.) (cm)

(days)

Four-year

hydroperiod

SD (days)

(cm)

Mean water

depth SD

(cm)

Surface

water

gage

Ground

water

gage

Water depth transparency

Ground elevation transparency

Four-year hydroperiod transparency

High inter-annual hydroperiod variation

Select water depth date range: 3/1/2017 - 7/15/2017

2017 mean hydroperiod

Date range

Loading image 137 of 137

Select 4yr hydroperiod year:

Displayed water

depth date:

2017-07-01

Displayed

hydroperiod year:

2017

show gages

Sub-area statistics:

mean water depth

water depth sd

% dry area

% WD ≤ 17cm

% dry ≥ 40 days

% dry ≥ 90 days

Figure 7. Screen capture of the Cape Sable Seaside Sparrow Viewer application for July 1, 2017, showing the seven 

subpopulations (A–F and AX) and nearby monitoring gages in Everglades National Park.

The animated viewer shows flooded and dry areas and calculates 

(1) the percentage of area that is dry, (2) the percentage of area 

with water depth less than or equal to 17 centimeters (a critical 

depth for CSSSs), and (3) the percentage of area that has been 

dry for 40 and 90 days or more for each subpopulation area 

(fig. 7). The CSSS Viewer application allows scientists and 

resource managers to access hydrologic information, evaluate 

potential effects of water depths on nesting success, and guide 

management strategies on a daily basis. 

Looking Forward to the Next Decade

In addition to serving water-level and water-depth 

maps to scientists and resource managers, the EDEN project 

will continue exploring the development of innovative realtime analytical and visualization tools to help further the 

understanding of ecological response to hydrologic changes 

and evaluate system-wide management strategies. Ongoing 

research into predictive tools includes the forecasting of waterlevel conditions by using statistical and numerical methods. 

The development of specialized applications, such as the 

CSSS Viewer, will continue in response to the needs of the 

scientific community and will continue to support biological and 

ecological assessments.

References

Beerens, J.M., Frederick, P.C., Noonburg, E.G., and Gawlik, 

D.E., 2015, Determining habitat quality for species that 

demonstrate dynamic habitat selection: Ecology and 

Evolution, v. 5, no. 23, p. 5685–5697, accessed December 19, 

2015, at https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/70159780.
Conrads, P.A., Petkewich, M.D., O’Reilly, A.M., and Telis, P.A., 

2014, Hydrologic record extension of water-level data in the 

Everglades Depth Estimation Network (EDEN), 1991–99: 

U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 

2014–5226, 27 p., accessed December 19, 2015, at https://doi.

org/10.3133/sir20145226.

Dong, Quan, Cade, B.S., Alvarado, Mario, Oberhoffer, Lori, and 

Bass, O.L.S., 2006, Quantifying hydrologic constraints on the 

population of Cape Sable seaside sparrow: CESI Final Report 

submitted to Everglades National Park, Homestead, Fla., 

accessed December 19, 2015, at https://www.nps.gov/ever/

learn/nature/upload/RES03-3FinalReportSecure.pdf.

Fujisaki, Ikuko, Rice, K.G., Pearlstine, L.G., and Mazzotti, F.J., 

2009, Relationship between body condition of American 

alligators and water depth in the Everglades, Florida: 

Hydrobiologia, v. 635, p. 329–338, accessed December 19, 

2015, at https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/70037312.

Jacobs, Jennifer, Mecikalski, John, and Paech, Simon, 2008, 

Satellite-based solar radiation, net radiation, and potential and 

reference evapotranspiration estimates over Florida: Technical 

Report, accessed December 19, 2015, at https://fl.water.usgs.

gov/et/publications/GOES_FinalReport.pdf.

Jones, J.W., Hall, A.E., Foster, A.M., and Smith, T.J., III, 2013, 

Wetland fire scar monitoring and analysis using archival 

Landsat data for the Everglades: Fire Ecology, v. 9, no. 1,

p. 133–150, accessed December 19, 2015, at https://pubs.

er.usgs.gov/publication/70045509.

Pathak, C.S., ed., 2008, Appendix 2-1: Hydrological Monitoring 

Network of the South Florida Water Management District, 

accessed December 19, 2015, at http://my.sfwmd.gov/portal/

page/portal/pg_grp_sfwmd_sfer/portlet_sfer/tab2236041/

volume1/appendices/v1_app_2-1.pdf.

Pearlstine, L.G., Higer, A.L., Palaseanu, Monica, Fujisaki, Ikuko, 

and Mazzotti, F.J., 2007, Spatially continuous interpolation 

of water stage and water depths using the Everglades Depth 

Estimation Network (EDEN): Gainesville, Fla., University of 

Florida, Institute of Food and Agriculture, CIR 1521, 18 p.,

2 apps., accessed December 1, 2016, at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/

uw278.

Petkewich, M.D., Daamen, R.C., Roehl, E.A., and Conrads, 

P.A., 2016, User’s manual for the Automated Data Assurance 

and Management application developed for quality control of 

Everglades Depth Estimation Network water-level data: U.S. 

Geological Survey Open-File Report 2016–1116, 28 p., http://

dx.doi.org/10.3133/ofr20161116.

South Florida Information Access, 2000, Dedication and 

Thanks to Aaron Higer - 2000 Greater Everglades Ecosystem 

Restoration Science Conference, accessed August 25, 2017, at 

https://sofia.usgs.gov/higerdedication.html.

Telis, P.A., Xie, Zhixiao, Liu, Zhongwei, Li, Yingru, and 

Conrads, P.A., 2015, The Everglades Depth Estimation 

Network (EDEN) surface-water model, version 2: U.S. 

Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2014–

5209, 42 p., accessed December 14, 2015, at https://doi.

org/10.3133/sir20145209.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1999, Central and Southern 

Florida Project comprehensive review study—Final integrated 

feasibility report and programmatic environmental impact 

statement: Jacksonville, Fla., variously paged, 4 annexes,

15 apps., accessed June 8, 2017, at http://141.232.10.32/docs/

comp_plan_apr99/summary.pdf.

Special Acknowledgment

The EDEN team would like to express gratitude to Aaron 

Higer (South Florida Information Access, 2000) for envisioning 

an internet-based, real-time, and system-wide quality-assured 

hydrologic information tool for scientists and resource managers 

working in the Everglades. His vision was implemented in 2005 

with the creation of EDEN, and the EDEN team has the honor

of carrying on his legacy. 

By Eduardo Patino, Paul Conrads, Eric Swain, and

James Beerens

For more information, contact:

Director, USGS Caribbean-Florida Water Science Center

4446 Pet Lane, Suite 108, Lutz, FL 33559

https://www2.usgs.gov/water/caribbeanflorida/

https://sofia.usgs.gov/eden/

ISSN 2327-6916 (print)

ISSN 2327-6932 (online)

https://doi.org/10.3133/fs20173069