Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2019FL053B

Evaluation of methods for improved management of water resources within karst systems

Institute: Florida
Year Established: 2019 Start Date: 2019-05-31 End Date: 2020-05-30
Total Federal Funds: $24,512 Total Non-Federal Funds: $81,692

Principal Investigators:

Project Summary: The goal of this student-led project is to evaluate and develop new tools and technologies for improved water resources management within karst systems. The proposed effort will evaluate existing and nascent methodologies for water resources management that look beyond standard best management practices in order to develop management tools that can help governmental agencies to analyze the quantity of water available and the amount used in their regions as well as consider the water resource as an economic good in the broadest sense or concept, rather than exclusively in monetary terms. If a robust methodology is developed from this seed project, follow on proposals will be generated to pursue additional funding to support further development of the tools and methods. The outcome of this project will be a thorough evaluation of economic and systems based methods for evaluating water resources management within karst systems and recommendations for which methods are most promising. Specific objectives of the proposed work include: 1. Evaluate existing methods for modeling and managing water resources within karst regions. 2. Use historical data available from Florida’s Water Management Districts to analyze trends in water withdrawals from the karst Floridan Aquifer, and evaluate them in terms of their costs, benefits, and impacts. 3. Based upon all methods reviewed, recommend the most promising approaches for optimal management of water resources within karst regions.