Pollutant Loading and Abatement Analysis for the C-43 Basin

The overall project goal was to develop a water resource assessment tool for the C-43 basin that would allow planners, regulators, and local stakeholders to evaluate various alternatives for protecting and enhancing the stream flow and water quality within the basin and related impacts on the downstream Caloosahatchee Estuary. To this end, the available data resources within the basin and how they can be utilized in the development of an assessment model were a critical component of the proposed project. Additionally, a critical component of success was the level of experience within the project team in the development and application of models for projecting the load, attenuation, fate and transport of water quality constituents within the unique environments of South Florida and specifically the C-43 Basin.

Once the model/modeling approach had been selected and approved by DEP, the project team moved quickly to develop/set up/parameterize, calibrate, and test the model. The amount of calibration needed varied significantly based on the type of model(s) selected, i.e., mechanistic versus empirical/statistical models. Once calibrated, detailed sensitivity and validation exercises were performed. In particular, the accuracy of the model was tested against observed data. The sensitivity analysis will determine the relative output response of the critical model input parameters. These two exercises will determine the functionality and reliability of the model to respond to various input parameter changes that will be needed to simulate historic, existing, future, and BMP land use scenarios.