FACETS (Floridan Aquifer Collaborative Engagement for Sustainability)
In September 2017, the Ichetucknee Alliance was invited by the University of Florida’s Water Institute to have a representative on the stakeholder panel for a new five-year participatory water modeling study. The project is funded by a grant from the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
The goal of the Floridan Aquifer Collaborative Engagement for Sustainability (FACETS) project is “to ensure economic sustainability of agriculture and silviculture in North Florida and South Georgia while protecting water quantity, quality, and habitat in the Upper Floridan Aquifer and the springs and rivers it feeds.” To accomplish that goal, the FACETS team brings scientists, economists, growers, representatives of environmental organizations and state agency employees together to:
• Create a new water model that can predict the impacts of different land use and production practices.
• Engage stakeholders to work together to understand the changes that are needed to achieve agricultural water security and environmental protection.
• Conduct innovative agricultural Best Management Practice (BMP) research.
• Develop and deliver decision toolkits and training programs to effect preferred changes in agricultural production systems and public policy incentive programs.
Ichetucknee Alliance staff assistant/communications coordinator represents the Alliance on the FACETS stakeholders’ group, speaking not only for the Ichetucknee but also for the other springs in North Central Florida.
In addition to the experts who are creating the water model (which includes economic modeling and analysis to take growers’ profits into account) and developing the BMP demonstrations, tools and training, the FACETS team has a social science component that is analyzing how social learning and communications take place among the stakeholders.
The Water Institute at the University of Florida, the University of Georgia, Auburn University and Albany (GA) State University are all participating in the FACETS project.
For more information please visit the FACETS website.