ERIM Teams up with Duke University to Conduct Groundbreaking Water Research

The Duke Wetland Center and the Environmental Research Institute of Michigan (ERIM) have recently begun a joint research project in south Florida, funded by both the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Monitoring Regional-Scale Hydrologic Processes in the South Florida Ecosystem.

The project will combine field hydrology and ground-truthing with remote sensing radar imagery data to study changes in the patterns of surface-water inundation between Rookery Bay Estuary (Naples, Florida) and the Everglades National Park (ENR) during the past 20 years. Ground-truthing is important in interpreting remote sensing radar imagery. The response of radar to standing water varies according to vegetation communities, standing water, soil type, soil moisture and texture of the soil surface.

Wetland Center researchers will establish 15 new continuously-recording water-depth stations to compliment 40 existing stations managed by the South Florida Water Management District, the U.S. Geological Survey and ENR. Once the radar images are calibrated to present hydrologic condition, the investigators will study images collected over the past 20 years to look at changes in surface-water inundation patterns as a result of changes in land use and water management policies.

The results of this study will be used to verify existing surface-water flow models in south Florida and to model the impacts of road and canal construction of the Everglades. After site selections are finalized, installation of the new station will begin.

Contributed by Ed Romanowicz, Ph.D.