Water Resources Management
People, as do every other living creature, require water to live. As such, no other natural resource warrants more attention than water affords. Given sufficient quantities of appropriate quality in desired locations, water also enhances our daily lives and provides recreational opportunities. However, too much or too little water of less than desirable quality in unwanted areas can produce devastating effects to life and infrastructure. As such, efficient and prudent water management represents a growing societal challenge in the 21st century. Taylor Engineering’s engineers and scientists possess the technical training and practical experience to assist clients across the broad spectrum of water management issues. Please visit our project gallery to view a variety of our water resources management projects. A few project examples include
Deer Point Dam Expert Witness Services
Deer Point Dam separates the saltwater in North Bay from the freshwater in Deer Point Lake. North Bay connects to the Gulf of Mexico through St. Andrew Bay and St. Andrew Inlet near Panama City, Florida. Deer Point Lake provides freshwater to the population surrounding the lake and the North West Florida Water Management District (NWFWMD) suspects that the dam and the lake may prove vulnerable to hurricane storm surge. The NWFWMD retained Taylor Engineering to investigate the vulnerability of the lake and provide expert witness testimony regarding the findings.
Leading-edge Solutions
- Determined a reasonable likelihood for storm-induced saltwater intrusion primarily by overtopping Deer Point Dam
- Determined saltwater intrusion could require several weeks to restore the lake to a drinkable condition following a direct hurricane landfall at Panama City
- Applied historical records of Hurricane Opal to corroborate basic conclusion
- Presented findings to local stakeholders
Herbert Hoover Dike Dam Break Analysis
The Herbert Hoover Dike (HHD) system consists of approximately 143 miles of earthen embankment surrounding Lake Okeechobee. The initial and current authorization for HHD pivots on the premise that the facility and its appurtenance works as a levee system. However, the current operation of the facility relative to impounded water storage operates as a dam. Further, the addition of the HHD to the National Inventory of Dams in April 2005 came with the inference that the facility should comply with more stringent dam criteria. To that end, Taylor Engineering numerically modeled various uncontrolled dam breach scenarios for all reaches around the lake to quantify the extent of dam break flood inundation to communities and agricultural interests.
Leading-edge Solutions
- Dynamically linked an erosion-based breach model to a hydrodynamic flood routing model to simulate a breach with a falling lake level and downstream backwater effect
- Determined backwater effect caused by pooling of floodwater at downstream compartments most directly affects breach development because it slows breach widening and subsequently influences breach flow and flood inundation
- Produced engineering-based reports that stayed clear of politics
Wolf-Pennywash Reservoir Water Supply Project
Taylor Engineering conducted hydrologic and hydraulic analyses to assist a client’s permitting efforts to secure surface water supply sources for agricultural operations and other needs. Projections in population growth in Central Florida, as well as Deseret Ranch’s own population and agricultural growth, have increased the regional water demand. This study focused on specific modeling tasks and conceptual design alternatives for a reservoir at Wolf Creek and Pennywash Creek to meet the projected water demand.
Leading-edge Solutions
- Performed surface water yield analyses for an inline reservoir — forming a lake on existing creek beds — and an offline reservoir — requiring pumping water from the creeks into an upland reservoir to safeguard wetland ecology
- Analyzed hydrologic and wave conditions for design of an inline reservoir’s height and emergency spillways
- Analyzed ecology-protective flows aimed at proposing minimum flows and levels
- Communicated frequently among environmental agencies and other project stakeholders