Lake Houston (Texas) EFDC hydrodynamic model for water-surface elevation and specific conductance simulations, 2009-2017

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in a partnership with ExxonMobil Corporation, developed an updated Lake Houston EFDC model for predicting water-surface elevation, residence time, water temperature, and salinity. With a focus on salinity and water-surface elevations, the updated model simulated conditions from 2009-2017 with additional flow to simulate the Luce Bayou Interbasin Transfer under three different flow scenarios. One of the primary partnership goals was to understand the impact of the Luce Bayou Interbasin Transfer on salinity. The original model was developed and calibrated by using 2009 data and validated by using 2010 data, whereas the enhanced model (baseline model) of this project was calibrated for the years 2009 through 2011 and validated using 2012 through 2017 data. Modifications were made to the original Lake Houston EFDC model (Rendon and Lee, 2015) in order to optimize the new calibration and validations periods.