project outline/work plan

I think the outline is well written. I think the topic you have selected is tremendously important and sorely neglected. I think you now have in front of you the best jobs on the planet. Has anyone tried the significantly smaller job: Can we collect the data and quantify the flows and bookkeep the changes (i.e. NO MODELING) that quantify the lack of sustainability in some single similarly limited geographical region? So maybe the document lacks a few key citations of what has come before so that one will grasp how this work will succeed by using prior work rather than how it will have to move too many mountains or invent too many wheels?