Table 1. 
continued. 
Table 1. Major Problem Sets for Sarasota Bay, in Order of Management 
Complexity. No priorities are intended by the order of listed 
items. 
A. Federal, state, regional and local participation 
These problem sets would benefit from a significant level of federal 
participation in addition to state, regional and local involvement. 
1. Stormwater runoff. The watershed is mostly developed and 
programs to retrofit existing developed areas will be 
complicated and costly. Stormwater is a serious problem 
in the bay, but improvements to runoff management systems 
should be measurable in terms of bay resources and 
values. Response to runoff projects will be easier to 
detect than in systems facing multiple stresses. Studies 
of runoff in tidally affected creeks would be nationally 
significant. 
2. Beach/inlet/channel management. At present, beaches are 
(or can be) nourished by federal or state or local 
agencies, or private parties. Inlets may be dredged for 
navigation, beach spoil, or both goals. Approach 
channels and the Intracoastal Waterway are managed with 
minimal local role. Impacts of these combined, inter¬ 
related activities are significant and tools developed to 
manage these impacts would be nationally useful. The 
opportunity to address these problems may be unique to 
the bay area, if they are not identified as important 
resource management issues in other priority estuaries 
named in the Water Quality Act of 1987. 
3. Habitat creation and restoration. A number of specific 
problems concern habitat. The status, restoration, and 
preservation of seagrasses is the most important habitat 
issue in the bay. The special problem of intertidal 
habitat in Sarasota Bay is the lack of suitable, 
naturally occurring sites. Impaired habitat can be 
restored, but significant habitat gains will be more 
complicated to justify, design, implement and evaluate. 
A federal involvement will be needed to develop habitat 
creation projects in urban settings where potential space 
is limited. Such projects would be nationally useful, 
however, as models for similar situations. 
4. Sea level rise (SLR). Federal involvement in this issue 
far outdistances state activity despite Florida’s special 
relation to the sea. The development of a meaningful 
assessment of SLR impacts for Sarasota Bay would help the 
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