Development of a Flow and Transport Model in a highly Interactive Surface Water Groundwater System Near Everglades National Park in South Florida, USA

Technical Category(ies): Integrated Water Management, or Modeling and Groundwater
Hydraulics

Varut Guvanasen1, Vivek Bedekar1,2, Dilip Shinde3, and Rene Price4,
1HydroGeoLogic, Inc., Reston, VA, USA; 2now with SS Papadopoulos and Associates,
Inc., Bethesda, MD, USA, 3Everglades National Park, Homestead, FL, USA, and
4Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA.

ABSTRACT
Everglades National Park (ENP) in south Florida, with the largest subtropical
wilderness in the United States, was created to protect a fragile ecosystem instead of
safeguarding a geographic feature. In 2000, the U.S. Congress authorized the
Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP), the largest environmental
restoration effort in history, to enhance the Everglades wetlands and associated lakes,
rivers, and bays in south Florida. Along the southeastern adjoining areas of ENP in
C111 canal basin, a number of hydraulic structures have been constructed to help
regulate the groundwater flow pattern within ENP. In this area, surface water is highly
interactive with groundwater. This area is underlain by Biscayne Aquifer, a highly
transmissive aquifer. Phosphorus distribution and transport are also of concern in this
area. A three-dimensional integrated surface water groundwater flow and transport
model was developed and used as an analytical and management tool to investigate the
operations and the impacts due to the construction of levees, canals, pumping stations,
and detention basins on the groundwater flow pattern and water quality. The
developed model simulates transient surface water groundwater flow and transport in
double-porosity porous media for the southeastern boundary area of ENP in response to
the operations of the system of canals, levees, and pumping stations, as well as climatic
conditions. This model covers an area of more than 400 square kilometers and was
calibrated to a set of pre-specified calibration criteria. Available data of total
phosphorus concentration, potentiometric elevation, canal and detention basin stages,
and flow through canals between 2000 and 2007 were used as quantitative calibration
targets. Details of model development and calibration and sensitivity analysis results
are presented and discussed.