Management Options During the 2011–2012 Drought on the Apalachicola River: A Systems Dynamic Model Evaluation

Abstract

The Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River basin (ACF) is a large watershed in the southeastern United States. In 2012, the basin experienced the second year of a severe drought and the third multi-year drought in the last 15 years. During severe droughts, low reservoir and river levels can cause economic and ecological impacts to the reservoir, river, and estuarine ecosystems. During drought, augmenting Apalachicola River discharge through upstream reservoir releases and demand management are intuitive and often-suggested solutions to minimizing downstream effects. We assessed whether the existing reservoir system could be operated to minimize drought impacts on downstream water users and ecosystems through flow augmentation. Our analysis finds that in extreme drought such as observed during 2012, increases in water releases from reservoir storage are insufficient to even increase Apalachicola River discharge to levels observed in the 2007 drought. This suggests that there is simply not enough water available in managed storage to offset extreme drought events. Because drought frequency and intensity is predicted to increase under a variety of climate forecasts, our results demonstrate the need for a critical assessment of how water managers will meet increasing water demands in the ACF. Key uncertainties that should be addressed include (1) identifying the factors that led to extremely low Flint River discharge in 2012, and (2) determining how water "saved" via demand management is allocated to storage or passed to downstream ecosystem needs as part of the ongoing revisions to the ACF Water Control Manual by the US Army Corps of Engineers.

Assessing the Resilience of Coastal Wetlands to Extreme Hydrologic Events Using Vegetation Indices: A Review

“…Remote Sens. 2018, 10, 1390 6 of 23intermittently observed from 2011-2013[36]. Note that Tahsin et al[20] reported similar findings regarding NDVI dynamics showing drops at 2005, 2009 and 2011-2012.…”

“…Apalachicola Bay was impacted by Hurricane Elena, Hurricane Dennis, Hurricane Claudette in 1985, 2005 and 2013, respectively. Tropical storms followed by flood impacted Apalachicola Bay during 1994-1996 and droughts were intermittently observed from 2011-2013 [36]. Note that Tahsin et al [20] Horizontal line (red line) in (a,b), in each box indicates median demarcating 50% data either above or below the median whereas the dashed (brown) horizontal lines represent the average 25th and 75th percentiles for the two types of the wetlands studied here (corresponding percentile values are written inside parenthesis adjacent to the dashed brown lines).…”

Development and comparison of integrated river/reservoir models in the Apalachicola–Chattahoochee–Flint basin, USA

“…The remaining reservoirs, including those on the Flint River, are run-of-the-river-type facilities with little or no storage capacity. The ratio of reservoir storage capacity to annual flow in the lower ACF basin is small relative to other river basins in the USA; management options in this basin consequently are more limited than in other basins (Leitman et al 2015b). The ACF basin has the storage capacity to hold less than 3 months of average flow, whereas the Colorado basin has over 3 years of average flow in storage (Vano and Lettenmaier 2014).…”

Evaluating Population Recovery Characteristics and Potential Recovery Actions for a Long‐Lived Protected Species: A Case History of Gulf Sturgeon in the Apalachicola River

“…The Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint watershed is unique among the systems that are known to support Gulf Sturgeon because the Jim Woodruff Lock and Dam (JWLD), which was completed in 1957, blocks upstream passage to approximately 78% of the historic riverine habitat (Wooley and Crateau 1985) and is a possible discrete management unit for Gulf Sturgeon as described by the USFWS and Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission (1995). The Apalachicola River is also part of ongoing legal action between the basin states of Florida and Georgia that is related to water use within the basin and its potential effects on riverine and estuarine ecosystems (Ruhl 2005;Pine et al 2015;Leitman et al 2016).…”