Root Zone

The ET/Recharge model produces the effective root zone depth (ERZD), which is used as input to the South Florida Water Management Model. The depth of the Root Zone varies by land surface type. In Free Water Surfaces,

Root Zone (Free Water Surface) = 99.0.

This value was chosen to conceptually represent the evaporation from the free water surface using MODFLOW and force the evaporation rate to be at its potential value when the water table is at or above the ground surface. In the Impervious Areas,

Root Zone(Impervious Areas) = 0.0.

In the Pervious Areas, the root zone is affected by the high water table

Root Zone (Pervious Areas) = Corrected Root Zone for wet or dry period = z = f[ZR, Hg, hw],

where ZR is the depth of the root zone for a given plant, Hg is the ground surface elevation, hw is the water table elevation. The ZR can be corrected based on a linear interpolation to compute the saturated evapotranspiration using MODFLOW for each stress period, based on water table level location. The corrected root zone, z, can be calculated.

AMC III refers to the Antecedent Moisture Condition which indicates that heavy rainfalls have occured during the previous five days and the soild is nearly saturated.

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