Application of the South Florida Regional Simulation Model (SFRSM) to Palm Beach County, Florida

Abstract

The South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD or District) is currently developing a new Regional Simulation Model (RSM) that simulates the integrated coupled movement and distribution of groundwater, and surface water through the canal networks and water control structures in south Florida. In this paper the RSM is applied to Palm Beach County, Florida. These hydrologic components are primarily solved using the hydrologic simulation engine (HSE) of the model code. Likewise, the operations of the canal water control structures (pumps, gated culverts, gated spillways and weirs) present in the model domain are simulated using the management simulation engine (MSE) of the RSM. The MSE consists of a multi-level control scheme which encompasses the local control of a hydraulic structure by the imposition of flow and/or stage constraints on the individual modeled water control structures, as well as the coordinated sub-regional control of multiple structures. The entire code architecture was based on object-oriented design and concepts. The model performance of the HSE alone, with imposed historical boundary conditions and no MSE operations, will be evaluated by providing comparison plots between model simulated stages and discharges versus historical data as well as model output from the South Florida Water Management Model (SFWMM) - a legacy regional simulation model for the same area. Model performance will also be evaluated by running the model with the MSE operations also in place and by checking the simulated results for reasonableness. A test bed representing a subset of the entire modeling domain was created for Palm Beach County, Florida in order to understand the interaction between the hydrology and management aspects of the area.