Recursos acuíferos

Managing High Water Levels in Florida's Largest Lake: Lake Okeechobee

Karl E. Havens

Applications of Artificial Intelligence in Water Resources Forecasting

Golmar Golmohammadi, Seyed Mostafa Biazar, Rohith Reddy Nedhunuri, and Nikolaos Tziolas

The advent of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning has permeated every aspect of our lives. Water resource management is becoming increasingly important due to the impacts of climate change and human activities. This publication provides examples of how AI can potentially improve the forecasting of water resource variables at both the field and regional levels. The main goal is to introduce new AI techniques for forecasting key environmental factors (climate, soil, water) related to water resources in Florida. The results demonstrate how deep learning models performed consistently well and established their superiority in capturing the temporal dynamics of river discharge and groundwater in the region. The results also show a dramatic groundwater level drawdown in certain areas, which could jeopardize the ability to meet water demands for agricultural purposes. The increase in river discharge and high groundwater levels might be related to flooding in those areas.

Desalination Systems and Their Environmental Impacts

Golmar Golmohammadi, Seyed Mostafa Biazar, and Maxwell Naah

Developed technologies for the desalination of seawater and brackish groundwater supplies have been demonstrated to be technically feasible, economically viable, and reliable; meanwhile, emerging technologies are still in the pilot or small-scale stages. The total installed capacity of desalination plants in the United States has expanded from around 302 million gallons per day (MGD) in 2009 to about 479 MGD in 2022. Florida leads the nation in desalination capacity, having more than 130 desalination plants. Environmental issues related to desalination are a significant factor in designing and implementing desalination technologies. Their projects require an environmental impact assessment (EIA) study to determine how the project can affect the air, land, and marine environments by considering the impact on source water, impact from concentration, issues with desalinated water products, and impact from gas emissions. The EIA also proposes measures to mitigate environmental impacts.