Management strategies for flood protection in the lower Illinois River: phase I, development of the lower Illinois River pool 26 UNET model

"Prepared for the Office of Water Resources, Illinois Department of Natural Resources.""June 2001.

Management strategies for flood protection in the lower Illinois River: phase II, real-time simulation of flooding with UNET model

"Prepared for the Office of Water Resources, Illinois Department of Natural Resources"--Cover."December 2001.

Development and Application of Coupled Optimization-Watershed Models for Selection and Placement of Best Management Practices in the Mackinaw River Watershed

Agricultural non-point source (NPS) pollution remains to be one of the biggest challenges in the Midwest due to extensive farming practices and the use of fertilizers to increase agricultural productivity. Excess sediment and nutrient loadings such as nitrogen and phosphorous are major causes of non-point source pollution in rivers and streams. The Mackinaw River watershed, which is one of the tributary watersheds of the larger Illinois River basin, covers a total drainage area of about 2950 square kilometers. Since 1990, this watershed has been one of The Nature Conservancy’s (TNC) conservation sites, considered to be an area of biological significance in the Upper Mississippi River basin. The Mackinaw River watershed plan prepared by The Nature Conservancy in 1998 indicates that altered hydrology and sedimentation are the primary threats to the Mackinaw River. The plan provided recommendations to improve river hydrology and reduce sediment yields through changes in the landscape. Conservation practices serve as crucial control measures in reducing NPS pollutants from agricultural watersheds. The 2008 Farm Bill provided more than $7 billion for promoting agricultural production and environmental quality by supporting implementation of structural or non-structural management practices under its Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) (Cowan and Johnson, 2008). Successful implementation of such programs, however, requires sound watershed management plans. Watershed management plans involving implementation of best management practices (BMPs) can help reduce pollution from agricultural sources. BMPs are structural or non-structural control measures that can be implemented in watersheds to control pollutant loads at their source or their transport to receiving water bodies. Implementation of these BMPs should focus on critical source areas that may contribute large amounts of pollutant loads. Identifying areas for the placement of BMPs should take into account both ecological benefits and associated implementation costs. The objectives of this study include (1) developing watershed models for Mackinaw River and two of its tributary watersheds, namely Bray Creek and Frog Alley, to simulate streamflows and water quality constituent loads, and (2) developing a coupled optimization-watershed model for cost-effective selection and placement of BMPs in Bray Creek and Frog Alley watersheds to reduce nonpoint source pollutants such as sediment and nutrient loads to the streams. An integrated modeling approach that involves interfacing a simulation model with an optimization algorithm has been employed to develop the coupled optimization-watershed model. Such integrated modeling approaches have been demonstrated in solving complex, realistic problems in the areas of watershed management, reservoir operations, groundwater monitoring design, and others. In this study, the coupled optimization-watershed model was developed by interfacing a watershed model known as the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) with Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II), a multiobjective optimization algorithm. Figure 1 shows the location map of the Mackinaw River watershed.published or submitted for publicationis peer reviewe

Flood protection and management for the lower Illinois River system, phase III: real-time simulation of floods with managed LDD storage options

"Prepared for the Office of Water Resources, Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

An analysis of managed flood storage options for selected levees along the Lower Illinois River for enhancing flood protection report no. 4: flood storage reservoirs and flooding on the Lower Illinois River

"Prepared for the Office of Water Resources, Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

Hydrologic and Hydraulic Modeling for the Restoration of the Calumet Marshes: Assessment of Runoff Scenarios

Lake Calumet is located south of Lake Michigan. It is a site of former landfills and abandoned industrial facilities, yet a place of economical and ecological significance for the future development of the area. The marshes surrounding Lake Calumet are ecologically significant to the Black-crowned Night Heron but the hydrology in the area has been greatly impacted by the large amount of landfilling and the constantly changing land use and drainage of the surrounding uplands. In order to save threatened species, to prevent ecosystem degradation, and recreate a local economic base, the City of Chicago’s Department of Environment has been leading community groups and other agencies to develop plans to restore the region to a recreational area. Millions of dollars will be invested for the effort. To support the development plan for the Calumet Region to become an ecological park, hydrologic and hydraulic models have been developed for the region. These models serve as a basis for determining the best water management strategies for the Lake Calumet Cluster Sites and the adjacent open spaces, namely the Indian Ridge Marsh (IRM). An integrated hydrologic and hydraulic model was used to evaluate the hydrologic impacts of different remedial options proposed for the Cluster Sites and other upland properties in the marsh watersheds, and to assess the adequacy of the existing marsh outlets in terms of long-range ecological goals. This report evaluates six proposed management scenarios to cope with flooding and to establish a more suitable environment for Black-crowned Night Heron nests in the marsh areas by controlling water level fluctuations. For Black-crowned Night Heron nests, the maximum fluctuation is ten inches. Our study showed that diverting surface runoff from the Cluster Sites appeared to be the best option for limiting water level fluctuations to around six inches in the IRM.Illinois Sustainable Technology Center Sponsored Research Program ; HWR06-202Ope

Hydrologic and Hydraulic Modeling of the Cache River for Evaluating Alternative Restoration Measures

The Cache River basin, located in southern Illinois, has characteristics unique to the State of Illinois and nation, with diverse physical, chemical, and biological features that produced a great diversity of natural communities. Because of these unique characteristics, the Cache River basin contains some high quality bottomland hardwood forests and wetlands that have been recognized nationally and internationally. Changes in land-use practices and hydraulic modifications during the last century have significantly threatened the ecological integrity of some of these valuable habitats and wetlands. Therefore one of the key goals of resource managers working in the area is to restore the Cache River’s natural hydrologic character to a level that can sustain a viable ecology throughout the river corridor. An essential component of the restoration effort for the Cache River has been the development of detailed hydrologic and hydraulic models to determine water levels associated with proposed restoration measures. These models assist the Cache River Wetlands Joint Venture Partnership (JVP) in the decision-making process of selecting and implementing restoration projects that improve the hydrologic conditions for the natural ecosystem. Hydrologic and hydraulic modeling also allow the JVP to satisfy all regulatory requirements and ensure that natural, agricultural, and social resources are not damaged by flooding induced by modifications to the river system. Hydrologic and hydraulic models were developed by the Illinois State Water Survey for the Lower and Upper Cache River and are published in two reports (Demissie et al., 2008, 2010) located on the ISWS website http://www.isws.illinois.edu/pubs/search.asp (Contract Reports 2008-01 and 2010-06). This presentation summarizes the results for some of the modeling scenarios

Effect of hydrodynamic heterogeneity on particle dispersion in a Taylor-Couette flow reactor with variable configurations of inner cylinder

BackgroundEffect of hydrodynamic heterogeneity on particle dispersion in a Taylor-Couette flow (TC) reactor with variable configurations of inner cylinder has been investigated using CFD modelling.MethodsParticle dispersion was tracked based on the Eulerian-Lagrangian approach, where the reactant solution phase was solved in the Eulerian reference frame, while the particle dispersion was calculated by tracking a large number of particles with consideration of the hydrodynamic forces acting on particles and adopting actual particle properties measured from the particle synthesis experiments.Significant FindingsThe simulation reveals that particle dispersion is significantly enhanced by increasing the inner cylinder rotational speed, characterized by particle distribution for both circular inner cylinder Taylor-Couette flow reactor (CTC) and lobed cross-section inner cylinder Taylor-Couette flow reactor (LTC). Particle trajectories or dispersion are influenced by the turbulent Taylor vortices. Particle radial dispersion affects the particle classification by presenting different particle axial velocities in radial direction, while particle axial dispersion can be seen as an indicator for global mixing occurring in the TC reactor, which is enhanced at high rotational speed, especially in the LTC. The calculated dispersion coefficient is found to be similar to the shape of particle size distribution found in the experiments

Water Supply Planning: Middle Illinois Progress Report

This report presents a summary of 1) the technical information assembled to describe existing water availability and sources of supply within the 7-county (LaSalle, Livingston, Marshall, Peoria, Putnam, Stark, and Woodford Counties) Middle Illinois River Region in central Illinois (Figures 1 and 2) and 2) the development of preliminary computer models that will be used in future studies to estimate impacts to water availability resulting from future water development in the region. Through funding by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR), the Illinois State Water Survey (ISWS) and Illinois State Geological Survey (ISGS) prepared this document for the Middle Illinois Regional Water Supply Planning Committee (MIRWSPC) to aid in the development of a plan for meeting the future growth of water supply demands within the basin to the year 2060. It contains background information to provide an overview of management criteria and an understanding of the constraints and policies used in conducting analyses and making decisions concerning water usage. Models will be applied to a broad range of conditions, including a set of selected future water use scenarios to more fully characterize water availability within the Middle Illinois River Region to the year 2060. In addition, as the MIRWSPC deliberates and prepares its water supply planning document, the information presented in this report will be reviewed and, in some cases, additional analysis may be performed and results revised. A more complete reporting of the model development, the results of the scenario simulations, and subsequent work concerning water availability will be published at the end of that forthcoming study. The existing technical information compiled as the first task of this study includes a review of previous analyses and publications dealing with the Middle Illinois River Region’s water resources; collection of hydrogeological and hydrologic data, primarily as needed for modeling; and, in certain cases, additional analyses of that data, such as data mining of well records and yield analyses of surface water supply sources. This compiled information focuses on the three primary sources of water supply within the Middle Illinois River watershed: 1) direct withdrawals from the Illinois River; 2) public supply systems using the Vermilion River and off-channel reservoirs at Pontiac and Streator; and 3) groundwater from within the Middle Illinois River basin. A companion report has been published (Meyer et al., In preparation) evaluating water demand scenarios out to 2060 for the Middle Illinois River, Northwest Illinois, and Kankakee River Regions.published or submitted for publicationis peer reviewedOpe