Evaluation of a Water Budget Model for Use in Wetland Design

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dc.contributor.authorNeuhaus, Ericen
dc.contributor.committeechairThompson, Theresa M.en
dc.contributor.committeememberWhittecar, George Richarden
dc.contributor.committeememberDaniels, W. Leeen
dc.contributor.committeememberBenham, Brian L.en
dc.contributor.departmentBiological Systems Engineeringen
dc.date.accessioned2013-09-03T08:00:24Zen
dc.date.available2013-09-03T08:00:24Zen
dc.date.issued2013-09-02en
dc.description.abstractWetland ecological function greatly depends on the wetland hydrology. As a result, correctly estimating the wetland water budget, is essential to the success of created wetlands. A wetland water budget model, Wetbud, was developed by collaborators from Virginia Tech, Old Dominion University, and the Technical University of Crete for estimating wetland water budgets to assist wetland design in the Virginia Piedmont. The Wetbud model has basic and advanced modules. The basic module uses level pool routing to compute average monthly water levels. Based on the groundwater model MODFLOW, the advanced module estimates groundwater interactions and vegetative resistance to surface flows on a daily timestep. The overall goal of this research was to assess Wetbud as an uncalibrated design model for mitigation wetland water budget estimation in the Virginia Piedmont. Specific objectives were to compare predictions using the basic and advanced modules and to compare the Thornthwaite and the FAO-56 Penman-Monteith potential evapotranspiration estimation methods for the design of created wetlands. The Wetbud model was tested using data from two existing mitigation wetlands. Both modules produced reasonable results; however, the basic module did not accurately predict drawdown occurring during dry periods. Results showed that the Wetbud advanced module produced more accurate and detailed results when compared to the basic module: Nash-Sutcliffe model efficiency ratings for the advanced module ranged from to 0.44 to 0.63. Potential evapotranspiration estimates by the FAO-56 Penman Monteith method were more accurate than those from the Thornthwaite method in nearly every model scenarioen
dc.description.degreeMaster of Scienceen
dc.format.mediumETDen
dc.identifier.othervt_gsexam:1561en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/23741en
dc.publisherVirginia Techen
dc.rightsIn Copyrighten
dc.rights.urihttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/en
dc.subjectwetland hydrologyen
dc.subjectModelingen
dc.subjectModflowen
dc.subjectmitigationen
dc.subjectevapotranspirationen
dc.titleEvaluation of a Water Budget Model for Use in Wetland Designen
dc.typeThesisen
thesis.degree.disciplineBiological Systems Engineeringen
thesis.degree.grantorVirginia Polytechnic Institute and State Universityen
thesis.degree.levelmastersen
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Scienceen

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