Hydrologic modeling impacts of post-mining land use changes on streamflow of Peace River, Florida

Abstract

Whether mining activity results in reduced flow of surface water in the Peace River Watershed of Florida has been the subject of much debate. With increased dependence of downstream users on surface water flow of the Peace River as a source of drinking water for four coastal counties in Southwest Florida and problems of water security, the debate has been intensified. It is possible to assess relationships of mining with streamflow in the upper reaches of the Peace River Basin using hydrologic modeling and identify mined sub-basins. In this work, land-use change impacts were simulated by the Hydrological Simulation Program—Fortran (HSPF) model based on geographical information system (GIS) tools, to compare pre- and post-mining streamflows at a study site of the Peace River in west-central Florida. The purpose of this study was to determine if land-use changes caused by mining have negatively impacted streamflow in the Peace River. Changes of land use were identified before and after mining activities. A coupled volume-water depth-discharge (V-h-Q) model based on stage/storage and stage/discharge was applied using HSPF for the pre-mining and post-mining models, respectively. Daily simulated post-mining hydrographs from HSPF were plotted with the calibrated pre-mining results and streamflow hydrographs from the 18 gauging stations, to compare timing of peaks, low flows and flow trends. Analyses of percent exceedances of flow frequency curves of the streams indicated that most streams had similar distributions for mined (reclaimed) and premining periods. In the streamflow change analysis, streamflows actually increased in mining-affected basins at nearly half the stations. Streamflows at other stations diminished. Overall from this comprehensive study, there were declines in streamflow at most gauging stations on the mainstem of the Peace River and its tributaries. The results of this study suggest that regional planning is urgently needed to propose reclamation schemes that enhance regional hydrology.