Water Flows and Nutrient Loads to the Southwest Coast of Everglades National Park, Florida

These stations are also equipped with wind speed and direction sensors and barometric pressure sensors to correlate with water level and stream discharge. The southwest coast of Florida is part of a wilderness area with unique hydraulic characteristics that has historically been described as the "River of Grass". Flat terrain and lack of controlled topographic information has made it difficult to define drainage divides.

Low gradients, coupled with tidal effects, create complex conditions under which to measure river flow. It has been almost thirty years since any effort has been made to monitor flow characteristics continuously in the area. Significant technological advancements have occurred during this time and this new technology can be applied to help obtain the information needed to make informed decisions about the future of this unique coastal area.

Flow, nutrient concentrations, and nutrient load data will provide part of the basic information needed to understand the hydrologic and water-quality characteristics for a part of the southwest coast of Florida. The analysis of these measurements will help characterize the current conditions for the three sites and explain the relation between upgradient water levels and southwest coastal stream flows, and the possible interaction between southwest coastal waters and the waters of Florida Bay.

The data can also be used as input to hydrodynamic and water-quality models. This project is now part of the Tides and Inflows in the Mangrove Ecotone (TIME) Model Development project.