Despite substantial investments in water quality monitoring and restoration efforts across Florida, data are often fragmented across sources and scales, limiting opportunities for comprehensive statewide assessments of water quality drivers and trends.
FLOW QU2EST aims to create a benchmark statewide water quality and quantity dataset by integrating nutrient measurements, water quality indicators, watershed characteristics, stream network attributes, and discharge data from multiple sources. Through a statewide synthesis working group, the project brings together water science experts to guide dataset development, identify priority applications, and explore innovative approaches for generating actionable knowledge about the causes, patterns, and management of water quality challenges. The effort also seeks to enhance data accessibility, support decision-making, and lay the foundation for future collaborative research and funding opportunities.
Funding: Water Institute with $10,000 in external funding from the Department of Environmental Protection.
Cohort Members
Leadership Team:
- Matt Cohen, Water Institute, UF
- Wendy Graham, Agricultural and Biological Engineering, UF
- James Jawitz, Soil, Water, and Ecosystem Sciences, UF
- David Kaplan, Environmental Engineering Sciences, UF
Working Group Participants
- Nasrin Alamdari, Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University/Florida State University
- Mauricio Arias, University of South Florida
- Jordon Beckler, Florida Atlantic University
- Thomas Frazer, University of South Florida
- Kelly Kibler, University of Central Florida
- Shawn Landry, University of South Florida
- William Mcdowell, Florida International University
- Mark Rains, University of South Florida
- AJ Reisinger, Soil, Water, & Ecosystem Sciences, UF
- Dingbao Wang, University of Central Florida
- Ming Ye, Florida State University
Data Science Team:
- Shuo Chen, Soil, Water, & Ecosystem Sciences, UF
- Nicholas Chin, Water Institute, UF
- Dan Dai, Soil, Water, & Ecosystem Sciences, UF
- Seyed Abolfazl Ebrahimi, Water Institute, UF
- Nicolas Fernandez, Water Institute, UF
- Luis Henrique Bordin, Florida International University
- Nathan Reaver, Water Institute, UF
- Xiaohui Qiao, Food and Resource Economics, UF
Expected Outputs
This working group will meet at various workshops. At the end of these workshops, the expected deliverables are:
- Statewide benchmark water-quality dataset
- New analytical tools and predictive models
- Novel use case and applied research
- Strengthened statewide water-quality expert network