Spatial Water Balance of the Suwannee River Basin, Florida: an Application of El Niño Southern Oscillation Climatology
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SPATIAL WATER BALANCE OF THE SUWANNEE RIVER BASIN, FLORIDA: AN APPLICATION OF EL NIÑO SOUTHERN OSCILLATION CLIMATOLOGY By NITESH TRIPATHI A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2006 Copyright 2006 by Nitesh Tripathi I dedicate this dissertation to my wonderful family, especially… To my grandparents, particularly, my grand father, who has always wanted me to excel at the highest level and achieve my life goals; whose letters have kept me motivated to accomplish this; who finds pride in my accomplishments. To my loving parents who are my greatest teachers in life who have taught me how to be a good human being, for opening my eyes to the world; for their countless sacrifices so that I could pursue my dreams; for their diligence in instilling in me the importance of hard work and higher education; for their unconditional support and encouragement throughout my life and through my doctoral program. To my brother who is a role model in my life; with whom I shared many of our childhood dreams; attaining a PhD abroad is an extension of one of those dreams; who is a big influence on life and my academic career; for his motivation in my pursuit of academic excellence. To my wife who has been my most faithful encourager; who always stood by me and never lost her smile during many of our stressful times and during the course of my doctorate; for her endurance, patience, love and continued support in every whichever way possible always. To our precious daughter Navya who continually helps me put life into perspective; whose pranks take away the stress after long hours of work; who may also be motivated and encouraged to reach her dreams; who may recognize the inherent value of dedication and hard work to attain her goals in life. To all of you, I express my deepest love and appreciation for always being there to encourage me in so many ways. I am blessed to be your grandson, your son, your brother, your husband and your dad. I share this accomplishment joyfully and gratefully with you. I love you! ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisory committee. First of all, I would like to thank Dr. Grenville Barnes, my committee chair, for his thoughtful guidance and constant encouragement to me and his unbelievable patience with me throughout the course of my graduate study at the University of Florida. I would especially like to thank Dr. Sandra Russo for providing me with continued employment to overcome some of my financial constraints during my graduate studies at UF. My special thanks go to Dr. Peter Hildebrand who helped me select this interesting research topic. His one statement, early on in one of our discussions, “How much water do we have in Suwannee?” set the course for my PhD research. Thanks go to Dr. Jim Jones for his willingness to spend time with me to explain the complex hydrologic concepts necessary to successfully complete this research. I would also like to express my gratitude to him for providing financial support for part of my study program. Thanks go to Dr. Ignacio Porzecanski for his support, motivation and always useful feedback during the entire research. I would like to thank Dr. Roy Carriker, Department of Food and Resource Economics, for always being available to discuss about water issues in Florida. I would also like to thank Dr. Peter Waylen, Geography Department, for helping me understand the concept of “spatial streamflow computations” and also imparting knowledge about ENSO effects on Florida streamflow. I express my thanks to Dr. Anurag Agarwal in the Department of Decision and Information Sciences for providing a computer program v crucial for computing the final results for my research. I would like to thank Dr. Clyde Fraisse, Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, for providing weather data for this research. I would like to express my deep gratitude to Mr. Richard Marella at USGS-FL office for his always helping attitude, for providing the water use datasets and reports for the research and for explaining the complexity of “water use” datasets in Florida. I would like to thank Mr. John Good and Mr. Thomas Mirti at the Suwannee River Water Management District office for their support in providing me necessary datasets and reports for the research. I would like to thank Dr. Steve Humphrey for providing me the necessary financial support when it was most needed and Cathy Ritchie and Meisha Wade at SNRE for dexterously handling my paperwork. I would like to thank my friends at UF, Seemant and Purvi, Vibhuti and Tulika and Amit and Raman for their help and support in many ways, both related and unrelated to this research, during the course of my PhD. I would also like to thank Ana, Laura, Leslie and Nikki at the UF International Center for providing a wonderful work environment and for their encouragement during this research. I would like to express my sincere gratitude towards my parents and brother whose encouragement and support have helped me finish this PhD. Last but most importantly, I would like to thank my wife Shefali and our daughter Navya for their constant love, support, endurance and encouragement during the course of this research. This dissertation is their accomplishment as much it is mine. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...................................................................................................v LIST OF TABLES............................................................................................................. xi LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................... xiii ABBREVIATIONS ...........................................................................................................16 ABSTRACT..................................................................................................................... xiv CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................1 Factors Affecting Water Resources in Florida .............................................................2 Population and Water Use Demand ......................................................................2 Climate Variability ................................................................................................5 Water Problems in Florida............................................................................................6 Rationale of the Study ..................................................................................................8 Objectives .....................................................................................................................9 Structure of the Dissertation .......................................................................................10 2 LITERATURE REVIEW...........................................................................................13 Introduction.................................................................................................................13 Review of Water Balance Studies in Florida..............................................................13 Review of Spatial Water Balance Studies ..................................................................16 Summary.....................................................................................................................18 3 STUDY AREA...........................................................................................................20 Suwannee River Basin Characteristics .......................................................................20 Physical Characteristics and Hydrology..............................................................20 Population............................................................................................................22 Water Use Trends................................................................................................23 Topography and Landuse ....................................................................................25 Climate ................................................................................................................26 Summary.....................................................................................................................27 vii 4 SPATIAL APPROACH TO MODELING AND ANALYZING THE WATER BALANCE OF A RIVER BASIN .............................................................................28 Hydrologic and Weather Data ....................................................................................28 A Spatial Water Balance Modeling Approach ...........................................................29 Geo-processing of Water Balance Components.........................................................32 Precipitation.........................................................................................................32 Streamflow ..........................................................................................................35 Evapotranspiration (ET) ......................................................................................42 Consumptive Water Use......................................................................................50 Spatial Water Balance Equation .................................................................................54 Methods