Projects / Surface Water Management
Hidden Cypress-Edison Farms Preserves Restoration Project
Lee County requested a modeling study to evaluate restoration alternatives for the Hidden Cypress and Edison Farms Preserve and Preserve. The idea was to evaluate the modeling scenarios based on changes in surface water and groundwater flows and levels.
- CLIENT
- Lee County(sub-consultant to EcoPlanz, Inc.)
- YEAR
- 2018-2019
- APPLIED SKILLS
- Integrated Modeling: Model updates & improvements
Model calibration
Scenario evaluations - CONSULTING AREAS
- Surface water management
Wetland conservation and restoration - SOFTWARE
- MIKE SHE/MIKE 11, ArcMap, and LAGO Toolbox.
Specifics
In collaboration to WSA, the existing MIKE SHE/MIKE 11 model setup was updated, which included landuse coverage, irrigation coverage and rates, flow paths and surface water structures, hydrogeological parameters, and observation data from surface and groundwater monitoring stations.
During model calibration, reported irrigation from large agriculture operations were used to adjust model irrigation parameters. Also, the hydraulic conductivities were also adjusted by using a proprietary tool (Adjust dfs2 file) to better match the observation data.
Outcome
The updated and recalibrated model was used to evaluate a number of hydrologic restoration options with the objective of reducing peak flows to the Estero River, Halfway Creek, and the Imperial River, as well as of increasing wetland hydroperiods in Hidden Cypress-Edison Farms Preserves.