El Niño–Southern Oscillation Link to South Florida Hydrology and Water Management Applications

Wossenu Abtew () and Paul Trimble

Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), 2010, vol. 24, issue 15, 4255-4271

Abstract: This study evaluates the relationships between El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) indices and South Florida hydrology and proposes applications to water management decision making. ENSO relations to the Upper Kissimmee Basin rainfall, watershed for Lake Okeechobee, and cumulative sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies at Niño 3.4 were evaluated. Additionally, relationship between ENSO and Lake Okeechobee inflows, Arbuckle Creek and Josephine Creek flows were analyzed. Hydrology of the northern watersheds of the South Florida water management system is linked to ENSO events. Dry season (November–May) rainfall and flows are higher than average during El Niño years and lower during La Niña years, at the 90% confidence level or higher. The relationship is strongest when the ENSO event is strong as shown with analysis of correlation. ENSO prediction has more certainty than hydrologic prediction for a region. Identifying ENSO and hydrologic relationships can aid water management decision making by providing a lead-time of months to mitigate drought or flood impacts. The ENSO tracking method, which was published in a previous study, is presented to track ENSO strength and event type to provide supplemental outlook on dry season rainfall for Lake Okeechobee operations. Lake Okeechobee, which is the main storage in the South Florida water management system, is regulated by a schedule with a limited band of stage fluctuation because of susceptibility of the Herbert Hoover Dike to wave erosion and seepage at high stages. An early decision making approach to storage management with respect to ENSO related hydrology, is presented based on tracking the strength of ENSO events. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010

Keywords: ENSO; El Niño; La Niña; Lake Okeechobee; South Florida hydrology; Water management (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11269-010-9656-2 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:waterr:v:24:y:2010:i:15:p:4255-4271

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11269

DOI: 10.1007/s11269-010-9656-2

Access Statistics for this article

Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA) is currently edited by G. Tsakiris

More articles in Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA) from Springer, European Water Resources Association (EWRA)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().