Organizational Unit:

Georgia Water Resources Institute

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https://hdl.handle.net/1853/70796

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Organizational Unit

School of Civil and Environmental Engineering

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 829

The partnership for a sustainable Georgia and environmental leadership in Georgia agriculture

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-04) Speir, Robert A.

The Partnership for a Sustainable Georgia's AgTrack Program is a joint effort with the state's Department of Natural Resources Pollution Prevention Assistance Division (P2AD) and University of Georgia's Cooperative Extension Service. Through the AgTrack Program, Georgia's farmers and producers volunteer to create an environmental management system (EMS) and implement conservation practices while being promoted as an environmental leader in the state. The AgTrack Program involves all sectors of Georgia agriculture, including row crops, poultry, dairy, and urban agriculture (nurseries, greenhouses, and turf). This partnership also involves businesses and organizations outside of agriculture which are also in the Partnership for a Sustainable Georgia. The Partnership hopes to lead to an exchange of ideas between agriculture and industry that achieves a common goal of environmental stewardship across the entire state of Georgia.
Finding water through rain

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-04) Williams, Steve

This presentation introduces several conservation alternatives in rainwater and stormwater management. These concepts include greenway acquisition, wetlands, cisterns, pervious concrete, earthworks, native plants and green roofs. By implementing these practices Atlanta could use rainwater more efficiently. This paper examines water use in the Metro North GA Water Planning District, which encompasses 14 counties. This paper 1) compares daily water use to an accumulation of 1-inch of rainwater within the district, 2) describes the cost of treating stormwater runoff from impervious surfaces, and 3) loss of groundwater recharge due to the presence of impervious surface (Figure 1. American River). The alternatives presented here evolved from research promoted by USGBC's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design LEED accreditation process. The concepts include forgotten knowledge from thousands of years ago (e.g. cisterns, green roofs, and earthworks) and those only a few decades old (e.g. pervious concrete, wetlands replication, bio-swales). Although these methods are sometimes initially more costly, when properly installed and maintained, they have a life-cyclecost less than today’s traditional systems of paving and piping stormwater.. By implementing simple and natural concepts in rainwater and stormwater management, water can be cleaned, harvested, and used in an efficient way; thus, reducing the financial burden and environmental problems created in the past century. Specific alternatives to be presented include: • Loss of pervious land • The cost of this loss • The problems with traditional infrastructure • New ways of management. • Greenway Acquisition: Purchase and restoration of native ecosystems primarily along streams • Small Ponds and Wetlands: Cisterns: Onsite storage of water for onsite use • Pervious Concrete: Allows stormwater runoff to be treated and then returned to the ground • Contouring land through Earthworks: Introducing basins and swales to keep the water on the land longer for plants and groundwater recharge. • Native Plants: Using native plants for diversity and natural water use. • Green Roofs: Promoting Green Roofs for stormwater management, reducing the heat island effect and increasing insulation References: American Rivers, Natural Resources Defense Council and Smart Growth America, Report Landscaping with Native Plants Fact Sheet http://www.epa.gov/greenacres/nativeplants/factsht.html #Native%20Plant Metro North GA Water Planning District 5 year update for 2008, Chattahoochee Basin Advisory Committee meetings, Metcalf & Eddy | AECOM
Updated plans for the Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-04) Hinkle, Joy

The Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District was created by the Georgia General Assembly in 2001 to establish policy, create plans and promote regional coordination of water issues in metro Atlanta. In 2003 the Metro Water District adopted its first set of integrated regional water plans: 1) Watershed Management Plan, 2) Long-term Wastewater Management Plan and 3) Water Supply and Water Conservation Management Plan. These plans have been actively implemented by local governments in the 15-county region over the past five years. The plans are required to be updated every five years and the Metro Water District anticipates adopting updated plans in early 2009. The updated plans will help manage the region’s water resources through the year 2035. A panel of Metro Water District staff will present each of the three updated plans, highlighting new required measures for local governments and additional regional and state policy recommendations. Staff will also provide insight on the opportunities and challenges of managing a regional planning process that involved hundreds of stakeholders.
Environmental indicators: tracking the status of Georgia’s waters

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-04) Cowie, Gail

Since 1997, the Georgia Environmental Protection Division has published a periodic report titled Georgia’s Environment. That report has highlighted current issues or pressures affecting the major environmental media (air, water, and land) and presented data on a small number of indicators to illustrate trends related to those pressures. As part of a broader environmental indicators project, the scope of the report has been expanded to provide a more comprehensive presentation on the state of Georgia’s environment, focusing on three primary objectives for environmental management. The revamped report is intended to serve a public outreach and information function, similar to that of the earlier publication. In addition, the 2006 report, along with related work on environmental indicators, is expected to also highlight emerging issues, potential policy needs, and critical data and information gaps. Development of the 2008 report started with a conceptual model that relates environmental conditions to major human activities that affect those conditions, followed by systematic identification of the indicators feasible to include in a comprehensive assessment of the state of Georgia’s environment. This paper will present the basic outline of the 2008 report, discuss constraints imposed by data availability and current approaches to data collection, and summarize results for select indicators of the condition of Georgia’s water resources.
Drip irrigation levels affect plant growth and fruit yield of bell pepper

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-04) Diaz-Perez, Juan C.

Bell pepper (Capsicum annum L.) plants have a high demand for water and nutrients and are particularly sensitive to water stress during the establishment period and fruit setting. High levels of irrigation are often applied in order to maximize yields. However, field observations suggest that excessive irrigations may negatively affect bell pepper plants. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of irrigation rate on plant growth and fruit yield. The trial was conducted the Coastal Plain Experiment Station, Tifton, Ga. Dripirrigated bell pepper (‘Stiletto’) plants were grown on black plastic mulch in 1-m wide beds (1.8 m- centers). Plants were irrigated with an amount of water that ranged from 33% to 167% the rate of evapotranspiration (ET), adjusted by crop stage of development. Soil moisture content (% by volume) over the season was continuously monitored with time domain reflectometry sensors connected to a datalogger. The results showed that the average soil moisture content for the season increased with increasing rates of irrigation. Vegetative top fresh wt. and marketable fruit yield were reduced at both, low (33% ET) and high (166% ET) rates of water application. However, irrigation rate had a stronger effect on fruit yield than on top fresh weight. Plants supplied with high irrigation rates appeared to be more chlorotic compared to plants irrigated at medium rates (100% ET). There was a tendency for higher incidences of soil borne diseases (Pythium spp., Phytophtora capsici) in plants receiving higher rates of irrigation. The conclusion is high irrigation rates (≥166% ET) are not recommended since they waste water and may result in both, higher incidences of soil-borne diseases and reduced bell pepper yields.
Water supply assessment and ranking of watershed dams in Georgia

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-04) Absher, Charles D. ; Ashley, David M.

Jordan, Jones & Goulding, Inc. (JJG, teamed with Schnabel Engineering, LLC) was selected by the Georgia Soil and Water Conservation Commission (Commission) to inventory and evaluate the water supply potential for 166 existing Watershed Dams in Georgia. Because of tremendous growth in the past several decades, water supply sources are increasingly in demand in Georgia, particularly in North Georgia. Also, environmental permitting requirements associated with constructing new reservoirs are increasingly stringent. Expansion of existing reservoir structures may be more acceptable to resource agencies, because many of the environmental impacts associated with existing reservoirs have already occurred. The Commission wanted a methodology to assess its existing dams and to rank their relative suitability for water supply; but inventory, assessment and ranking of 166 dams and their potential for expansion is no small task. JJG employed a GIS-based approach to the inventory and evaluation process. Available data resources were accessed and pertinent information on many factors was obtained, including wetlands, streams (including trout streams), protected species, cultural resources, numbers of affected structures and roads, impaired streams [303(d) or 305(b) listed], and distance to existing surface water intakes. Use of these data coverages made the organization of this huge amount of information manageable. The available environmental resource data was compared to potential reservoir yields, potential for pumpedstorage operation, and distance/cost of pumping to existing water systems. This information was assembled into an electronic matrix that enabled ranking of the various economic and non-economic factors according to their perceived importance. By iterations of the matrix, sensitivity analyses of the alternatives were done to look at their robustness under various yields and operating conditions. The top twenty alternatives that emerged from the ranking process were physically surveyed by JJG ecologists and engineers to refine the previously-collected data under “real-world” field conditions. Field data sets were collected using global positioning system (GPS) equipment, enabling the more accurate information to be downloaded directly into the GIS database. This in turn enabled a rapid re-evaluation of the rankings of the 20 most suitable alternatives.
Bannister Creek Mitigation Bank: the interaction of largescale stream mitigation with watershed and future land use planning

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-04) Glickauf, Steve ; Keebaugh, Shane

The Bannister Creek Mitigation Bank is located within the Etowah River Watershed in northwest Georgia. The Bank comprises approximately 15,000 linear feet of stream restoration and preservation and over 200 acres of riparian buffers to restore systems impaired by intense agricultural practices, which included dredging and straightening of the stream channels and removal of riparian buffer vegetation. One of the specific pollutants addressed during the planning and design process was sedimentation. Based off of initial estimates the site has the potential to reduce approximately 2,000 tons of sediment per year. The Bannister Creek Bank is unique in that it has been master planned with surrounding residential and retail development in a rapidly urbanizing area of Forsyth County. The Bank also has the potential to restore threatened and endangered darter habitats and has been proposed as a site for reintroduction of Cherokee darters. The Bank has been permitted through the US Army corps of Engineers Savannah IRT and will service the Etowah River watershed for impacts to all stream types. Construction on the stream channels was completed in November 2008, and planting of the riparian buffer followed stream construction.
Hydrologic streamflow conditions for Georgia, 2007

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-04) Knaak, Andrew E. ; Joiner, John K.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) Georgia Water Science Center (GaWSC) maintains a longterm hydrologic monitoring network of more than 260 realtime streamflow stations and more than 100 noncontinuous streamflow and water-quality sampling stations throughout Georgia. One of the many benefits of the data collected from this monitoring network is that it allows for the analysis of the overall hydrologic condition of the rivers and streams of Georgia. The following figures were developed using daily, monthly, and yearly statistics from the 2007 Georgia Water Science Center Annual Data Report (ADR). Electronic ADRs from 1999–2007 can be viewed online at http://ga.water.usgs.gov/pubswdr.html. The 2007 hydrologic streamflow conditions Fact Sheet can be viewed online at http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2008/3099/.
Towards a sustainable water future for Habersham County

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-04) Hughes, Duncan

Increasing population and demand for water supplies raise questions about the sustainability of Habersham County’s water future. Growth projections by the Georgia Mountains Regional Development Center indicate that the population of the county will double in the next 20 years and nearly quadruple in the next 50 years. Based on current per capita consumption, and accounting for water conservation measures not yet in place, the 50 year Comprehensive Water Development Plan for the county anticipates the demand for an additional 19.2 million gallons per day (MGD) (annual average) by 2055. Local surface water supplies are limited by Habersham’s location in the headwaters of two major river basins. Approximately 80% of the land area of the county drains to the Chattahoochee River and 20% to the Savannah River. Additional withdrawals from Chattahoochee basin sources are unlikely without flow augmentation (reservoirs) to meet existing downstream allocations and provide for wastewater assimilative capacity. Savannah basin sources are also problematic. Most wastewater infrastructure and population centers in the county are in the Chattahoochee basin. Interbasin transfers from the Savannah would be discharged, via public sewer or septic systems, to the Chattahoochee. Local municipal groundwater supplies are also limited by geology and should not be counted on to meet the expected future demand. Georgia’s Statewide Water Plan has implications for water supply planning in the county. Habersham remains in the Coosa-North Georgia Water Planning Region after petitioning the Georgia Environmental Protection Division for a change to the Savannah-Upper Ogeechee Water Planning Region. It remains to be seen how regional water planning will be coordinated with downstream users in the Metro North Georgia Water Planning District (MNGWPD) and other planning regions. Lack of available water supply will be a limiting factor for growth in Habersham County. Conservation and increased efficiency are imperatives if the county is to grow sustainably to meet the water demands of current and future residents.
Stream buffer widths and alternative methods for water quality protection in water supply watersheds

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-04) Champion, Becky ; Jarrin, Veronica ; Baughman, Douglas S. ; Gervais, Patrick