Discharge Data (Tamiami Canal)

Lauderdale office personnel. Canals are a major water-delivery component of the south Florida ecosystem. They interact with surrounding flow systems and waterbodies, either directly through structure discharges and levee overflows or indirectly through levee seepage and leakage, and thereby quantitatively affect wetland hydroperiods as well as estuarine salinities.

Knowledge of this flow interaction, as well as timing, extent, and duration of inundation that it contributes to, is needed to identify and eliminate any potential adverse effects of altered flow conditions and transported constituents on vegetation and biota. Comprehensive analytical tools and methods are needed to assess the effects of nutrient and contaminant loads from agricultural and urban run-off entering canals and thereby conveyed into connected wetlands and other adjoining coastal ecosystems.

These data from the individual gages were transferred to electronic form to provide a better understanding of the distribution of flow from north to south under the Tamiami Trail to aid in decisions about future changes to flow along the Trail.