Freshwater Flows to the East Coast

Discharges through 10 selected coastal control structures in Broward and Palm Beach Counties and the 16 coastal structures in Miami-Dade County, Fla., Florida, are presently computed using the theoretical discharge-coefficient ratings developed from scale modeling, theoretical discharge coefficients, and some field calibrations whose accuracies for specific sites are unknown. To achieve more accurate discharge-coefficient ratings for the coastal control structures, field discharge measurements were taken with an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler at each coastal control structure under a variety of flow conditions. These measurements were used to determine computed discharge-coefficient ratings for the coastal control structures under different flow regimes: submerged orifice flow, submerged weir flow, free orifice flow, and free weir flow. Theoretical and computed discharge-coefficient ratings for submerged orifice and weir flows were determined at the coastal control structures, and discharge ratings for free orifice and weir flows were determined at three coastal control structures. The difference between the theoretical and computed discharge-coefficient ratings varied from structure to structure.