Design A Spreader Swale System for Restoration of the South Florida Ecosystem

Abstract

Design A Spreader Swale System for Restoration of the South Florida Ecosystem Hsin-Chi Jerry Lin1 (601) 634-3023, Hsin-chi.J.lin@erdc.usace.army.mil Hwai-Ping Cheng1 (601) 634-3699, Hwai-Ping.Cheng@erdc.usace.army.mil Earl V. Edris1 (601) 634-3378, Earl.V.Edris@erdc.usace.army.mil Jing-Ru Cheng2 (601) 634-4052, Jing-Ru.Cheng@erdc.usace.army.mil Gour-Tsyh Yeh3 (407) 823-2318, gyeh@mail.ucf.edu 1Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory, US Army Engineer Research and Development Center, 3909 Halls Ferry Road, Vicksburg, MS 39180-6199, USA 2Information Technology Laboratory, US Army Engineer Research and Development Center, 3909 Halls Ferry Road, Vicksburg, MS 39180-6199, USA 3Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Central Florida, 4000 Central Florida Blvd., Orlando, FL 32816-2450, USA Abstract Restoration of the South Florida ecosystem is a major task for the US Army Corps of Engineers and the South Florida Water Management District. The objective of the task is to redistribute the available water from the South Florida watershed into the Biscayne Bay, the Manatee Bay, and the Barnes Sound. In an effort to restore the natural wetlands, several structures and management plans, and scenarios are considered. One of the plans is to deliver fresh water from the existing canals through a shallow spreader swale system into the eastern and southeastern coastal areas of South Florida. The spreader swale system consists of a delivery canal and shallow swales where water flows across the swale banks and becomes a more natural overland sheet flow. The spreader swale system includes 1D canal network routing, 2D overland flow, 3D subsurface flow, and flow through the interface of any two sub- domain of the spreader system. The physics-based watershed model, WASH123D will be used to simulate the complex hydrologic process in the South Florida watershed with flat terrain and strong surface water and groundwater interactions. The paper presents an example of the spreader swale system and demonstrates the flexibility and efficiency of the model as applied to a project-level small-scale problem.