The IAN team at the C111 Canal - Alex Fries, Emily Nastase, and Bill Nuttle. Image credit Alexandra Fries … The Florida Everglades is an ecosystem in transition, but is it transitioning toward a condition that people find desirable? This is a question that the Everglades report card may be able to answer. Currently, the Integration and Application Network is working with water managers and ecologists to incorporate an environmental report card into the Everglades 2019 System Status Report.

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On August 2nd, 2017 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the IAN team hosted the first of three Everglades regional workshops in order to develop the Everglades Report Card and 2019 System Status Report. This workshop laid the groundwork for grading the Southern Coastal Systems region of the Everglades, which encompasses Florida Bay, Biscayne Bay, and most of the south Florida coastline. This region in particular is highly impacted by changes in the hydrology of the system.

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After the afternoon talks ended at the aquarium and before drinks and dinner began, the Tennessee River Basin Network (TRBN) and UMCES held a short session on the Tennessee River report card. We were happy with the high attendance at our session and the progress we made during it. I started the session off with a spoken version of a song, adapted from the Chattanooga Choo Choo swing band song from 1941. The lyrics are as follows: The Chattanooga Choo Choo.

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On July 21, 2017, the Guanabara Bay Report Card was released in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This is the first ecosystem health report card in Brazil, and the second report card we have done in South America. The first report card in South America was for the Orinoco River in Colombia last year. For the Guanabara Bay Report Card, we partnered with PSAM (Environmental Sanitation Program of the municipalities surrounding the Guanabara Bay) with support from the Inter-American Development Bank.

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Training Mongolians to Develop a Tuul River Report Card … After our field trip, Simon Costanzo, Michele Thieme and I held a two and a half day workshop in Ulaanbaatar, working closely with WWF Mongolia and key stakeholders in order to develop the skills and strategies needed to create a Tuul River report card. We structured the workshop around the five steps of report card development: Conceptualization, Choose indicators, Determine thresholds, Calculate scores and Communicate results.

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Downstream Tuul River … On the second day of field trips before our Tuul River report card workshop, we headed downstream to visit two mines: one recently built with a history of environmental protections, the other an old soviet mine with no apparent environmental regulation.

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From July 2nd- 4th, 2017, Simon Costanzo, Michele Thieme and I took a day to walk around the capital of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar (Ulan Bator) and two days on driving tours to see both upstream and downstream sections of the Tuul River. This blog installment provides the first part of a synopsis of these field trips in anticipation of our Tuul River report card workshop. Ulaanbaatar … Ulaanbaatar centers around a large public square. Behind this square is Parliament House.

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Before starting at the Integration and Application Network (IAN) in 2005, Jane Hawkey worked for Washington Sea Grant, and then as a research assistant for several different Horn Point Laboratory faculty. There, she attended research cruises, produced newsletters and helped with publication graphics. These skills and experiences helped her when she joined IAN. She rose to IAN Senior Science Communicator within a short time period.

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The Integration and Application Network annual retreat was held at the Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center on Kent Narrows on May 31. Two dozen IAN staff spent the day introducing themselves to each other, discussing the IAN report card and the IAN brand. This annual gathering includes our University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science and Chesapeake Bay Program staff (UMCES@CBP).

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In April I travelled to China to discuss report cards with WWF China. Following the workshop (outlined in a previous blog), I was extremely lucky to be taken on a guided tour of the Three Gorges Dam that spans the Yangzte River in Hubei Province. Now this ain’t just any dam, it’s the biggest hydroelectricity generating dam in the world with a capacity of 85 terrawatt hours per year, or a 10th of China’s whole energy budget! Can you imagine?!

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