Hydroperiod Tool:Estimation of Inundation in Restored Kissimmee River

Floodplain

Lawrence SpencerSouth Florida Water Management District

Kissimmee Division

Hydroperiod:

Amount of time (days per year or percentage) that a habitat is inundated with water

Kissimmee River

•Drains Lake Kissimmee and Kissimmee Chain of Lakes (south of Orlando)

•Drains into Lake Okeechobee•Land Use: Orange Groves and Cattle Ranches

•Blackwater slow-moving river

•Meandered through 1 – 2 mile-wide floodplain

•Flat topography (30 ft/50 miles)

• Inundated over 300 days/yr

•Highly productive and diverse ecology

Channelized Kissimmee River:

•Controlled flooding well•Drained 60% of wetlands•Disturbed hydrologic cycle•Lowered plant diversity•Lowered fish and waterfowl diversity

Kissimmee Restoration:

•Backfill C-38 canal and restore/recarve channels

•Restore hydrology

Hydroperiod Toolfor Kissimmee River Restoration

Hydroperiod restoration fundamental to habitat restoration• Purpose of Tool: Evaluate critical habitat hydroperiods

quickly, with low overhead• Previously, analysis was provided through complex

models - costly and time intensive• Kissimmee scientists want to know:

• What does inundation look like day-to-day?• Are specific habitats being inundated as expected?• Based on hydroperiod, what sites should we sample?

Hydroperiod Tool Specs• Use monitoring point network and ArcGIS

interpolation tools to estimate floodplain inundation

• Interpolation methods estimate:• Floodplain/Habitat inundation depths• Inundation durations• Inundation extents

• Use statistical tools to evaluate:• Habitat-specific inundation depth and

duration• Whether hydrological goals are met.

Arc Hydro for SFWMD

Existing Arc Hydro Framework

Enhanced Arc Hydro Framework

for South Florida

FloodHydrology & Hydraulics

Operations DecisionSupport System

HydroperiodEstimation

Regional Simulation Model

HydroperiodModel

StageData

Digital ElevationModel (DEM)

Stage Stations

+

Hydroperiod: Number of days a given pixel is inundated

Habitat

Habitat Statistics

Space and Time in GISMap Animation/Feature Series

Stage

Time

Time Series

Attribute Series

xy

z

t1

t2

t3

Time-Indexed Raster

Hydroperiod Tool uses Model Builder Tools

Gives the tool more flexibility to meet changing needs• Users can create a custom tool with variable parameters• Ability to create a tool with set parameters for a process that

will be run often.• Ability to create a model to run a series of commands at one

time.• Users can create scripts that will loop through models or

commands.• Novice users can customize tools without having to write a

single line of code.• Most importantly for this project, future

enhancements are much easier to integrate into models than compiled code.

Hydroperiod Dialog

Hydroperiod Dialog Intro:

The tools have the following functionality:

Generate RastersClassify DepthsCalculate VolumeCell StatisticsZone Statistics

Each tool has a limited number of parameters the user can set through this dialog. Advanced users can set further parameters using Model Builder.

View Ponded Depths with Tracking Analyst

After running the “Classify Depths” tool, you can view the depths over time using the ESRI’s Tracking Analyst Extension.

Turn on the Tracking Analyst Extension (Tools/Extensions menu)

Turn on the Tracking Analyst Toolbar (View/Toolbars menu)

Click the Add data button and select the PondedDepth feature class from your geodatabse (source files folder)

Set the appropriate parameters and view the animation.

DHI TimeSeries Tool

The DHI TimeSeries tool enables users to import timeseries data from a variety of different data sources including the following:

-DBHydro-ArcHydro-Geodatabase-Excel-and many others…

After importing the timeseries data, users can view the data over time with the aid of graphs and tables.

Hydroperiod Tool Demo

Acknowledgments:South Florida Water Management District

Ken Stewart, Chris Carlson, Ken Konyha, Jim Cameron, Michele Maierhofer, Kurt Saari, Paul Ryan, Jenifer Barnes, Suelynn Dignard, Ron Mierau and many more.

Center for Research in Water Resources at University of Texas, Austin

Dr. David Maidment, Jennifer Sorenson, Alicia Fogg, Gil Strassberg, Venkatesh Merwade

Post Buckley Schuh & Jernigan (PBS&J)Jack Hampson, Mark Aurit, John Messer, Tim Brink, Raul Mercado, Rick Walker, Sarah Houghland

DHIMichael Blongewicz, Arnold Engelman

Restoration Status• Phase 1 of 4 completed in 2001

Backfilled 7.5 miles of canal Reclaimed 15 miles of river channel And 11,000 acres of wetlands

• Wetland hydrology partially re-established• Wetland plants rebounded

Native plants now cover 2-3 times area before restoration We expect further vegetation changes as hydrology is changed to

match pre-channelization conditions• Habitat for fish and waterfowl is greatly improved• Phases 2, 3, and 4 will backfill an additional 15 miles

of canal • All construction phases will be complete by 2012