Assessing the Effectiveness of Spreader Canals in Delivering Water to Marshes

Abstract

Hydrodynamic modeling is usually necessary for predicting water deliveries to marshes from source reservoirs. A novel approach is developed that decouples the delivery structure hydraulics from the marsh hydrodynamics, allowing these components to be analyzed both separately and in combination. This approach is applied to assess the effectiveness of incorporating spreader canals into water delivery systems in Everglades National Park. The results show that Manning's n in the marsh can be reasonably approximated as a function of VR, in which V is the flow velocity and R is the hydraulic radius; spreader canals can provide substantial percentage increases in water deliveries compared to the smaller structure tailwater pools, and spreader canal outflows can be linear functions of the length of the spreader canal.