ABSTRACT:
One goal of the Everglades Restoration Plan in south Florida is to increase water flow to the Everglades National Park, which may result in an elevated water table in parts of Miami-Dade County. Useful hydrologic data concerning rainfall-runoff relations, soil erosion, and water holding capacity are limited for this county. The objective of this study was to measure storm runoff, soil water retention curve, and soil erosion for the dominant soils in south Miami-Dade County under different water table regimes. Our results indicated that the rainfall-runoff relations were similar for the three dominant soil types (Perrine, Krome, and Chekika) when tested under a rainfall simulator. However, soil loss from Perrine soil was significantly greater than from Chekika and Krome soils as a result of fewer rock fragments and higher erodibility. In addition, Perrine soil had higher soil water content than did Chekika and Krome soils at any given tension. The results of this study should help water management planning that may result after alteration of the south Florida hydrology by restoration effects in the Everglades National Park.
Footnotes
M. Reza Savabi is a research hydrologist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service at the Subtropical Horticulture Research Station in Miami, Florida. Dilip Shinde is a soil scientist and Dmitry A. Bulgakov is a research associate for the Tropical Research and Education Center at the University of Florida in Homestead, Florida. L. Darrell Norton is a soil scientist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service's National Soil Erosion Research Laboratory in West Lafayette, Indiana.
- Copyright 2004 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society
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