Unique Approaches to Water ResourcesEducation in Florida

Watershed Journal Executive CommitteePhotos courtesy of Dr. Frederick Bloetscher, PE

We are a diversecommunity ofwater profes-

sionals. We each developour own perspectives fromour education andexperiences that lead usdown interesting but variedpaths. These perspectivesare a vital part of scienceand engineering and fuelmany of our new discoveries and technologies—and thankfully, previous issues of the FloridaWatershed Journal. In this issue of the Florida Watershed Journal, we focus on a topic that wetend to generally agree on—the importance of water education and research in the Floridaacademic environment. Our next generation of water leaders will face an ever broadeningarray of regulations, issues, and stresses that we have likely not even begun to address orunderstand. We also do not know how far technology will carry us—or fail to carry us—over the next 50 years. This issue explores the investment that our Florida universities aremaking in our next generation of water professionals. Rather than simply describing whatFlorida universities have to offer, the articles in this issue emphasize what makes each programunique. We hope that this issue will provide you with a fresh perspective on our nextgeneration of leaders and renewed hope for the future of Florida’s water environment.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our Floridainstitutes of higher learning for the research, involvement, andwonderful professionals that you create through your many programsand initiatives. We especially want to thank Dr. Stephan Nix for his

service to the Journalover the past couple ofyears. The Journalwould not have beenpossible without hisservice and dedication.We wish Dr. Nix nothingbut the very best in hisnew position at TexasA&M, Kingsville. �

4 ______________________Hydro-Environmental Educationat the University of Central FloridaManoj Chopra, Ph.D., P.E. Scott C. Hagen, Ph.D., P.E., D. CE, D. WRELakshmi N. Reddi, Ph.D., P.E.

9 ______________________Water Resource Studies atFlorida Atlantic UniversityFrederick Bloetscher, Ph.D., P.E.

12 ____________________The University of North FloridaStormwater Assessment Project(SWAP)Steven L. Byars, BSCEStephan J. Nix, Ph.D.

17 ____________________Water-Resources Education atthe University of MiamiJeffrey J. Iudicello David A. Chin, Ph.D., P.E.

SUMMER 2010Volume 3 • Issue 1

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Manoj Chopra, Ph.D., P.E.

Scott C. Hagen, Ph.D., P.E., D. CE, D. WRE

Lakshmi N. Reddi, Ph.D., P.E.

Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction EngineeringUniversity of Central FloridaOrlando, FL

Introduction

Availability of and access to global environmental resources arereaching a crisis point. Historical threats such as water shortages, landdegradation, air pollution, and climate change continue to affect theEarth, while new global threats emerge in the form of increasedseverity of natural disasters, species invasions as a result of free trade,atmospheric transport of trace pollutants, and urbanization. Availablewater supplies continue to be degraded as a result of human activity.Water is vital to our existence, yet this critical resource is beingstressed by multiple and at times competing demands: humanconsumption necessary for life; agriculture necessary for feeding thepopulation; industry necessary for economic growth and quality oflife; recreation; electric power; and ecosystem requirements to sustainthe biosphere. Our nation’s water resources will be subjected toincreasing demands and stresses due to population growth impactingthe ability to provide high-quality water.

At the present time, water is treated as a fragmented resource (forexample, water quantity uncoupled from water quality; surface wateras a resource separated from groundwater). Water resource problemsare extremely complex, requiring multidisciplinary research strategiesto solve them. Therefore, our vision of the water resources programmust be one of an integrated Hydro-Environmental Engineering thatincorporates concepts of sustainability, including impacts of globalclimate change and environmental infrastructure.

What follows describes the ongoing adaptations at the Universityof Central Florida (UCF) to the educational and research challengesposed to future Hydro-Environmental Engineers. We begin with a

discussion of our Water Resources curriculum and follow that with adescription of a new Capstone Design course. Next, we introduce theStormwater Management Academy and the CHAMPS Lab.

Reforming the Water Resources Curriculum

In 2008, the faculty of the Department of Civil, Environmentaland Construction Engineering decided to review the entireundergraduate curriculum and consider revisions. Under theleadership of the department advisory board, a list of peer institutionswas developed and comparisons were made with the curriculum atthese institutions in the three engineering programs of civil,environmental, and construction. It was determined that some reformwas needed in the curriculum to address the challenges of the futurewhile maintaining a strong engineering core to allow our students tosucceed in the nationalized norm of the fundamentals of engineeringexamination. Some of the changes included converting theeducational pathway for all sub-disciplines within civil engineering,such as water resources, geotechnical, transportation, structural,construction and environmental, to follow an introduction, breadth,and depth-of-knowledge format.

The current water resources curriculum includes separate coursesin Hydrology and Hydraulics that follow the introductory FluidMechanics course. In the new curriculum format the Fluid Mechanicscourse will be followed by Water Resources I that will include topicsfrom Hydrology and Hydraulics. This ‘breadth’ course will be followedby Water Resources II, which includes more advanced topics in thetwo areas. In this format the undergraduate student interested in acareer in water resources can take Water Resources I and WaterResources II followed by two senior design courses. Having gainedthe depth in Water Resources II, the student can then enroll in WaterResources Design and finally, in the term before graduation, take aculminating Capstone Design experience that brings together all thestudent’s educational knowledge into a real-world design project.

The Newly Developed Capstone Design Course

In 2009, the civil engineering program launched a pilot offeringof a new Capstone Design course experience that will soon become arequired course for all CECE majors. The Capstone Design is aninterdisciplinary course that brings together students with differentareas of ‘expertise’ gained from a prior senior design course. Theseareas include water resources, urban systems, geotechnical, steel andconcrete, and environmental systems. This course helps meet therequirements of the accreditation process for our engineeringprograms. The students are assembled into teams with participationfrom the different sub-disciplines and given a comprehensive designproject that requires each person to contribute to the overall successof the project.

Hydro-EnvironmentalEducation at the University

of Central Florida

CHOPRA HAGEN REDDI

The first pilot offering in Spring 2009 dealt with the developmentof a 20-acre site in Clermont, Florida. The project used in the courseincluded a number of interesting challenges, such as large changes ingrade at the site and accommodating the transportation infrastructure.The project required the team of students (Consultant) to review andsummarize the specific codes and requirements from the City,including parking, architectural standards, and other site features asthe initial due diligence. The layout of the site included a retail strip of15 tenants, 40,000 SF of a junior anchor, a fast food outparcel, a drive-through bank, and a 40,000-SF office complex. The consultant wasrequired to determine the necessary drainage area basins and designthe necessary retention ponds based on grade, area, runoff, etc. Power,sewer, and other utilities were coordinated and a stormwater layoutwas developed based on the grade. The traffic expert needed to designall traffic flow and traffic devices on and off the site, including newconnections to US 27 in accordance with Florida Department ofTransportation (FDOT) requirements.

The geotechnical expert conducted a soil investigation anddesigned any foundations or retaining walls needed to handle slopeand grade changes. The structural expert was needed to design a two-story (steel or concrete block) structure for the office complex. Theinitial pilot offering of the Capstone Design was very heavily weightedtowards water resources as all three primary instructors were from thewater industry. However, the offering also included guest instructorsthat presented and evaluated the other portions of the project, namely,structural design, transportation, and urban systems design andenvironmental impacts and design requirements. The course wascoordinated by a faculty member from the CECE Department (Dr.

Manoj Chopra) but the use of practicing professional engineers fromthe industry greatly enhanced the quality of the course. The CECEDepartment likes to use such professionals for senior design coursesfor their practical design experience.

Stormwater Management Academy

The Stormwater Management Academy was established in 2002by the FDOT in collaboration with the Federal HighwayAdministration, the Environmental Protection Agency, and theFlorida Department of Environmental Protection and is housed at theUniversity of Central Florida. The Academy has constructed a fieldresearch laboratory for conducting extensive full-scale pavementtesting and index properties testing and has a new rainfall simulatorfor soil erosion testing. The Academy’s vision is to protect and enhanceour valuable surface and groundwater resources using the most cost-effective stormwater management plans, designs, and operationalschedules. It aims to advance knowledge of stormwater managementdevices and train and educate professionals. The Academy membersconduct research and provide educational materials to further theunderstanding and use of stormwater management in the state andnation. Academy activities include gathering quantitative verifiabledata to plan, design, and operate stormwater management facilitiesand to develop innovative structural and non-structural methods.

The Academy offers multiple benefits to the engineeringcommunity: to bring together regulatory agencies, consultants,academia, and stormwater professional associations to resolve

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statewide stormwater issues and conflicts; to provide sound scienceto support responsible environmental direction for Florida; and toprovide an intake and review mechanism for importing anddeveloping new stormwater treatment technology.

The areas of research (past and current) include:• Wekiva Springshed • Pervious Pavement Systems• Rainfall Simulator (Figure 1)• Green Roofs (Figure 2)• Sorption Media• Stormwater Irrigation and Harvesting• Statewide Groundwater Table Determination and Database• Erosion and Sediment Control Manual and Field Laboratory• Fate of Nitrogen• Onsite Wastewater Treatment• Residential Stormwater Management• Impact of Fertilizers on the Environment• Enviro-home Project• Public Educational and Social Marketing Efforts

The Academy has a truly interdisciplinary approach thatencompasses engineering, social public education, and sustainability.Table 1 lists the two-pronged approach to the activities.

The Stormwater Management Academy provides researchopportunities for undergraduate students in the civil andenvironmental engineering programs. Undergraduate students haveparticipated in research projects such as soil erosion and sedimentcontrol, testing of the pervious pavement infiltration rate, testing inletprotection systems, green roof installation, and water quality testing.

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Figure 1 Rainfall Simulator at the

Stormwater Management Academy at UCF

(www.stormwater.ucf.edu) Figure 2 Green Roof on the Student Union Building at UCF (www.stormwater.ucf.edu)

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CHAMPS Laboratory

Since its inception, the University of Central Florida CHAMPSLab (Coastal Hydroscience Analysis, Modeling, and PredictiveSimulations Laboratory) has conducted research on tidally drivenflows in coastal and estuarine systems. The primary research objectiveis to better analyze and understand coastal hydroscience byrepresenting in a computer model the physical system and associatedprocesses with as much detail as possible. The overall mission of theCHAMPS Lab is to educate and train tomorrow’s engineers, scientists,and educators, while meeting the coastal hydroscience challenges oftoday.

What is coastal hydroscience and why not just focus on coastalmodeling of hydrology, hydraulics, or some combination thereof? Theanswer lies in the synergy of not only hydrology and hydraulicconveyance, but transport processes, biology, chemistry, andmeteorology as well. Our quest is to understand these complexnatural and engineered systems.

Present computing algorithms and high-performance computingclusters enable the CHAMPS Lab to push the envelope and explorenatural flow physics of large-scale systems with small-scale features.Figure 3 displays in yellow the marsh areas and Figure 4 shows theextent of a St. Johns River model where water is permitted to flow fromthe deep Atlantic Ocean up to and through multiple inlets on the east

coast of the U.S. and into the estuarine systems consisting of tidalcreeks and marshes. The tidally driven flows that are simulatedinclude astronomically forced ocean tides and hurricane storm tides

Public Education

Watershed Approach

Community Culture

Research Social Normsand Behaviors

Identify Barriers to Adoption of Ideas

Target Messages andTools to Specific Activities

Engineering Solutions

Performance Data for Existing and New BMPs

Innovative Designs to Address Water Issues

Sustainable Development

Recommendations to Policy Makers

Training and Educating Stormwater Professionals, including Designers and Contractors

Table 1. Activities of the Stormwater

Management Academy Public Education

Figure 3. Intertidal salt-marsh areas (in yellow) surrounding the

Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway near Jacksonville, Florida.

Figure 4. An unstructured finite element, shallow water equation

model in the Jacksonville, Florida region.

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that are driven by winds and waves. This capability has allowed theCHAMPS Lab to lead and participate in exciting projects, whichdirectly impact Florida and beyond.

The UCF CHAMPS Lab leads a team that includes UCF graduatestudents working in conjunction with industry and governmentcounterparts, including the Northwest Florida Water ManagementDistrict, Ardaman & Associates, Marea Technology, and ARCADIS,to develop a hurricane storm surge model for Franklin, Wakulla, andJefferson counties in support of a FEMA coastal floodplain mappingeffort. An indicator of the success of that effort is the subsequentcontract with UCF to develop a similar model for the remainder ofthe Florida panhandle and the Alabama coastal areas. In addition,the UCF CHAMPS Lab was recently awarded the lead on a NASAgrant to explore the application of high-resolution satellite imagery toimprove coastal and estuarine models. This interdisciplinary effortwill involve the UCF Biology Department, the NOAA CooperativeRemote Sensing Science and Technology Center, the NOAA CoastSurvey and Development Lab as well as two National Weather Serviceoffices. In addition, the UCF CHAMPS Lab is contributing to the U.S.Army Corps of Engineers’ Jacksonville Harbor Navigation ChannelDesign by developing an ocean tide and meteorology-drivenhydrodynamic model in to help understand the relationship betweenthe marsh areas and the main channels. The model will subsequentlybe used to evaluate the potential impact of channel modifications onthe local estuary.

These exciting, cutting-edge projects involve numerous graduate

and undergraduate students. Their backgrounds include civil &environmental engineering as well as biology, software engineering,and meteorology. Members of the CHAMPS Lab are able to conductinterdisciplinary research that enhances the overall goal of educatingthe Hydro-Environmental Engineering student (visithttp://champs.cecs.ucf.edu/ for more info).

Conclusion

Since its beginnings as an environmental engineeringdepartment, the UCF’s Department of Civil, Environmental, andConstruction Engineering has always maintained a water focus in allof its teaching and research programs. Our curricula give a breadthof experience to students leading up to capstone design, whichinvolves an interdisciplinary approach to solving real-world problems.Our research laboratories – the Stormwater Management Academyand the CHAMPS Lab—provide ample opportunities toundergraduates and graduates to be involved in cutting-edge research.Our vision in research is to excel in the evolving areas of sustainability,impacts of climate change, ecosystems analysis, environmentalinfrastructure, and renewable energy. Excellent partnerships with localand regional industries and state and federal agencies and focusedresearch pursuits of the faculty uniquely position UCF to be at theforefront of hydro-environmental engineering. �

Manoj Chopra : chopra@mail.ucf.edu

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