The purpose of this project is to evaluate recent scientific findings that demonstrate progress towards restoration goals for the Everglades, identify research gaps related to the function of the Everglades ecosystem, and to make recommendations for management decisions based on those findings. This system status assessment will be used to convey these findings for the system as a whole and regions of the Everglades to public resource managers and stakeholders.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) had designed software to facilitate the development and visualization of conceptual ecological models, and therefore required a large and comprehensive database of environmentally orientated visual icons to include for their users. USACE then partnered with IAN to incorporate our extensive symbol library into their software, and to develop additional symbols of complex ecosystems or ecosystem elements.