Southern Inland and Coastal Systems (SICS) Model Development

Project Investigator: Eric Swain Project Personnel: Melinda Wolfert, David Garces and Marc Stewart Project Start Date: 1996 End Date: 2000 Proposals Bibliography Metadata Publications Maps

Please visit the Tides and Inflows in the Mangrove Ecotone (TIME) Model Development Project Webpage for more information.

Summary

The objective of this project is to investigate wetland response to freshwater inflows and to compute resultant salinity patterns and concentrations in the subtidal embayments as functions of freshwater inflows.

One problem of particular concern and uncertainty to water management agencies for the South Florida Ecosystem is what effect future infrastructure and hydrologic changes to Taylor Slough and C-111 will have on the Everglades wetlands and the coastal mangrove ecotone of northeast Florida Bay. Specifically, hydroperiods and hydropatterns, which relate to the duration, timing, and extent of wetland inundation, in the southern part of the Everglades, have been greatly distorted to the detriment of plant and animal life as evidenced by shifts in biologic and vegetative species. The quantity, timing, and location of freshwater flows to the subtidal embayments of northeast Florida Bay have been significantly altered by modification of inflows from the headwaters of the Taylor Slough and C-111 drainage basins, thereby contributing to aqueous stresses associated with the development of hypersaline conditions. Moveover, excess nutrients and contaminants are adding to the problems experienced by living organisms in both the wetlands and associated subtidal embayments of Florida Bay, as well as the Bay itself.

For more than a decade, the National Park Service, Army Corps of Engineers, and the South Florida Water Management District have been working jointly on design modifications to the Central and South Florida Project features to reestablish more natural surface flows through the Everglades National Park and into Florida Bay. Numerous process studies are underway and(or) planned to evaluate the effects of implemented redesigns, yet no project is focused on synthesizing and integrating process-study findings into a cohesive management tool to evaluate these plans prior to implementation or to assess the results of implemented restoration actions. A coupled hydrodynamic and constituent transport model is needed to integrate process-study findings in order to evaluate the variable forcing mechanisms that govern both the flow of water and concurrent transport of waterborne constituents in and through the southern Everglades wetlands that discharge into the subtidal embayments surrounding northeast Florida Bay. Once fully developed, implemented, and calibrated the hydrodynamic/transport model can be used to investigate wetland response to freshwater inflows and to compute resultant salinity patterns and concentrations in the subtidal embayments as functions of freshwater inflows and other dynamic forcing mechanisms in order to quantify, assess, and thereby systematically guide restoration efforts.

Proposals

• 1998
• 1999

Metadata

• Vegetation Map of the SICS area (data set metadata)

Publications

Abstracts

• Developing Insight into Coastal Wetland Hydrology Through Numerical Modeling (from the Florida Bay Science Conference, April 2001)
• Development of Numerical Tools for Integrating Wetland Hydrologic Processes: SICS and TIME (from the GEER Conference, December 2000)
• Sheet Flow Model of the Southern Marsh and Mangrove Fringe
• Two-Dimensional Simulation of Flow and Transport to Florida Bay Through the Southern Inland and Coastal Systems (SICS) (from the South Florida Restoration Science Forum, May 1999)

Project Bibliography

Open File Report:

• A Model for Simulation of Surface-Water Integrated Flow and Transport in Two Dimensions: User's Guide for Application to Coastal Wetlands (Open-File Report 2005-1033, available from the U.S. Geological Survey website)

  Papers:

• Linkage of Hydrologic and Ecological Models: SICS and ALFISHES (from the proceedings of the Second Federal Interagency Hydrologic Modeling Conference, July 28 to August 1, 2002)
• Numerical Representation of Dynamic Flow and Transport at the Everglades/Florida Bay Interface (from the proceedings of the Third International Symposium on Ecohydraulics, July 1999)
• An Overview of the Southern Inland and Coastal System Project of the U.S. Geological Survey South Florida Ecosystem Program (from the proceedings of the Third International Symposium on Ecohydraulics, July 1999)

Posters:

• Developing Insight into Coastal Wetland Hydrology Through Numerical Modeling (from the Florida Bay Science Conference, April 2001) (Note: This is a (1.8 MB) PDF file available from the TIME website. PDF files require the FREE Adobe Acrobat Reader ® to be read.)
• Development of a Variable-Density Groundwater Flow Model for the Taylor Slough Area (from the Florida Bay Science Conference, April 2001) (available from the TIME website)

Water Resources Investigations Report:

• Two-Dimensional Hydrodynamic Simulation of Surface-Water Flow and Transport to Florida Bay through the Southern Inland and Coastal Systems (SICS) (Water Resources Investigations Report 03-4287)

Maps

Vegetation map for SICS study area