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| Submitter's Name |
Del Bottcher |
| Session Name |
Springs IV - Temporal Dynamics |
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| Author(s) |
Del Bottcher, Soil and Water Engineering Technology, Inc. (Presenting Author) |
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Andrew James,
Soil and Water Engineering Technology, Inc. |
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Crop Coefficients and Rainfall Distributions Influence on Silver Springs Flow |
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Over the past ten to fifteen years, the flows from the Silver Springs have been significantly lower than the previous three decades. This has raised concerns over the future of the spring and triggered significant debate over what has caused these reduced flows and what action can be taken to protect the spring. To help answer these questions, a springs flow model was developed that integrates the critical processes that control spring flow including recharge processes as influenced by temporal evapotranspiration (ET) relationships, ET crop coefficients by land use, groundwater pumping, and temporal and spatial rainfall distributions. Anthropogenic impacts on ET were primarily found to be impacted by irrigation practices and the amount of impervious surfaces from urban development. With the inclusion of the major water processes and using spatial rainfall data within the springshed, the Silver Springs model has closely predicted the observed flows over the past eighty two years, including the recent extreme low flow condition in June, 2012. The results indicate that temporal variations of rainfall and storm size distributions and anthropogenic land use changes are the dominant factors controlling the observed flows from Silver Springs. |
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