Jacksonville District Research Articles

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This conference was sponsored jointly by the Council on Wave Research and the University of Florida The National Science Foundation assisted by making a grant to pay the travel expenses of some of the foreign authors. Appreciation is expressed to the University of Florida Coastal Engineering Laboratory and to the Jacksonville District of the Corps of Engineers for photographs supplied to illustrate the cover and the section title pages of this publication.

Water for the Everglades: Application of the South Florida Systems Analysis Model

A screening model called the South Florida Systems Analysis Model (SFSAM) was developed to support the Central and South Florida Project Comprehensive Review Study (Restudy). The objective of the Restudy, performed by the Jacksonville District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the South Florida Water Management District, was to recommend a plan for improving environmental quality and urban and agricultural water supply reliability affected by the Central and South Florida water management project. As a ’modeler’s model,’ SFSAM was limited in scope and was used primarily to assist analysts in the development of alternatives. Additionally, model results provided some insights to operating strategies that could be tested and refined through more detailed modeling of the alternatives. This review of SFSAM includes a brief overview of the Central and South Florida project, a description of the model formulation, some interesting technical challenges faced in modeling the system, and representative and interesting results from the model application.

Phase II Inspection of Lake Manatee Dam

Lake Manatee Dam was constructed during the period 1965-1967. The reservoir is the primary water supply for a quarter of a million people in the Bradenton-Sarasota area of Florida. In early 1978, the Jacksonville District Corps of engineers performed a preliminary (Phase I) inspection of the earth dam and appurtenant structures as part of the National Dam Safety Program. The Corps found that the existing spillway did not have sufficient capacity to prevent overtopping during a large storm and that the downstream slope was potentially unstable, due to inadequate seepage control. The Corps classified the dam as large, with a high hazard potential, and recommended that a more detailed investigation be performed. Design calculations and many construction records for the dam were not available. Therefore, the subsequent Phase II investigation was considerably more extensive than would otherwise have been necessary. This investigation indicated that the embankment has a satisfactory factor of safety against slope failure and the concrete spillway has a satisfactory factor of safety against overturning. However, the drain at the toe of the dam was found to be partially plugged, and construction of a new toe drain was recommended. It was also recommended that an emergency spillway be constructed to supplement the existing spillway.

Sun, Sand and Water: A History of the Jacksonville District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1821-1975.

Abstract : This is your opportunity to discover how the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District, came to be. These pages detail the fascinating history of the Corps of Engineers in Florida and Puerto Rico tracing significant contributions to the growth of each. More importantly it lets you capture the spirit of the men and women of the Corps who built this district and established the high standards for professional competence, personal service and human warmth which we sustain today.

WAVE OVERTOPPIMG EQUATION

In the early 1950's the Corps of Engineers' Jacksonville District initiated a series of laboratory tests to investigate the overtopping of proposed levee sections for Lake Okeechobee, Florida. For economic reasons, the alternative to build levees with crest elevations that were at times below the limit of wave runup was investigated and the quantities of water carried over the structures for various freeboard allowances, structure slopes and wave conditions determined. The initial tests were conducted at the Waterways Experiment Station (WES) in Vieksburg, Mississippi for the Jacksonville District at what was taken to be a 1 to 30 model scale. Model wave heights varied from 1+.05 cm to 12.2 cm (0.133 to 0.^0 ft). In order to expand the range of test conditions investigated, the Beach Erosion Board, currently the Coastal Engineering Research Center (CERC), commissioned an expanded series of tests that considered the overtopping of riprap faced, curved and stepped seawalls as well as the overtopping of "smooth" slopes. These tests, also conducted at WES, were considered to be at a 1 to 17 scale with model wave heights ranging from 5-36 cm to 21.5 cm (0.176 to O.706 ft). A number of tests were subsequently conducted in CERC's large wave tank to determine the influence scale effects might have on overtopping. These tests are referred to as 1 to 2 1/2 scale tests. The model wave heights investigated ranged from U8.8 cm to 11*0.2 cm. (1.60 to h.6o ft).

Distinguishing Ambient And Anthropogenic Sediments At SensitiveCoastal Ocean Sites

2 Jacksonville District, US Army Corps of Engineers, USA Abstract Often during dredging, beach renourishment, or other coastal engineering activities, questions arise as to whether those activities are causing unintended, unexpected, deleterious environmental impacts. A typical question arising during dredged material disposal operations in a coastal zone, is whether any of the discharged dredged material is being transported out of the designated disposal site to a sensitive coastal ocean site of concern. In Florida (USA), and in the Caribbean, a sensitive coastal ocean site of concern is typically a coral reef location. In dredging operations in Ft Pierce Florida, local citizens expressed concern about a muck- like substance, observed covering a coral site, and wondered if it originated from the designated dredged-material disposal site, Proni (l). To address this concern a long term monitoring program has been undertaken to determine the following: 1) what other potential sources, besides the discharged dredged material, of the muck- like material may exist, Trefry (2), 2) what are the biological, chemical and sedimentary characteristics of the material, 3) do any of the other potential sources of material have similar characteristics, 4) do oceanographic and meteorological conditions favor the transport of dredged material from the disposal site to coastal site(s) of concern and, 5) what is the chronological history of the appearance of muck-like material at the site of concern? In this paper a discussion of results obtained to date is presented. Potential other sources of the material are identified and discussed, which include upwelled Atlantic ocean water, flood control releases from canals and bays, and dredging site transport (in contrast to transport from the dredged-material disposal site). Oceanic current observations are presented together with a discussion of potential sediment transport pathways. Potential effects of meteorological phenomena on coastal sediments are also discussed. Statistical cluster analysis of biological parameters suggests an ability to distinguish dredging site related organisms from coastal shelf organisms.

Biological Investigations of the St. Lucie Estuary (Florida) in Connection with Lake Okeechobee Discharges Through the St. Lucie Canal

A survey of the turbidity, salinity and sediment effects of St. Lucie Canal discharge into the St. Lucie Estuary was authorized by the Chief of Engineers on May 9, 1955. Expansion of that program to include the work of the present biological investigation was authorized by the Chief of Engineers on June 12, 1956. The scope and purpose of this biological work was to: (a) review the history of the St. Lucie Canal and analyze the problems concerned with discharges of fresh water into the St. Lucie Estuary: (b) present biological data from a 2-year investigation of estuarine conditions, January 1957 to January 1959; (c) determine the biological effects of operation of St. Lucie Lock and Dam with reference to important indicator species and evaluate the wide range of claimed damages relative thereto: and (d) determine operational procedures, practicable within the specific operational requirements of the project, which would either be beneficial or of the least damage to estuarine fishes and fishing conditions. A report (Gunter, 1959) covering all sections of the work, but with particular reference to (c) and (d) was submitted to the Jacksonville District of the Corps of Engineers. The present paper covers enough of (a) to give a background for exposition of the biological work and gives an expanded presentation of the biological data.