C111 hydrologic monitoring and monitoring in south Florida
Collaborators Meijing Zhang (Postdoc), Kati W. Migliaccio, Bruce Schaffer, Young Gu Her
Time frame Current project funded to 2018
Funding agency South Florida Water Management District
Summary
The South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) approved the construction of C-111 Spreader Canal Project in 2009. The construction of C-111 Spreader canal started shortly thereafter. As a part of the project, incremental raise in canal stages are planned through structural modifications. It is anticipated that the rise in canal water levels might affect agricultural areas surrounding the canal due to the potential changes to water table elevations. SFWMD contracted with University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF IFAS) to monitor water table elevations in the agricultural areas adjacent to the west of the C-111 Spreader Canal Project. The UF IFAS collected data and used it to assess the effect of canal stage on water table elevation. However, the areas close to C-111E were not monitored, therefore in the current project installation of new wells in this area, analysis on the effect of rainfall on groundwater table fluctuations, extension of groundwater flow model previously developed by UFIFAS using MODFLOW, and risk analysis were proposed.
Thus the objectives of the current project are:
- Install up to 10 new groundwater wells in the study area.
- Collect water table elevation data from the new and existing wells.
- Identify rainfall events and characterize water table elevation response by well location and rainfall depth.
- Develop a groundwater flow model using MODFLOW to simulate water table elevations for the study area.
- Identify areas with varying degree of risk associated with current land use practices.
New groundwater wells were installed. Groundwater elevation data are collected from the existing four wells and the new wells. All data are available on DBYDRO. The next task in the project was to identify the rainfall and site characteristics that influence the groundwater table reponse. Locations of the peaks in groundwater table elevation dataset were identified for each well. Rainfall events corresponding to the groundwater table peaks were identified from the NEXRAD rainfall data for each well.
Groundwater flow model will be developed for the study area using MODFLOW. The model will be used to simulate groundwater flow in the agricultural areas located within the project area. Model will be calibrated and validated using the measured data. In the final task, a risk analysis will be performed for the study area to identify areas with varying degree of risk associated with current land use practices and selected scenarios.
Publications
Zhang et al. 2017 Evaluating Water Table Response to Rainfall Events in a Shallow Aquifer and Canal System, Hydrological Processes http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hyp.11306/epdf