Bayou Greenbelt Feasibility Study

The Water Institute conducted this study for the National Park Service. This report is a project deliverable that describes the methods used to evaluate, at the conceptual level, the feasibility of the Bayou Greenbelt project, which aims to connect Contraband Bayou to Kayouche Coulee. The report discusses the datasets, previous models, and other information available that were leveraged to develop a new comprehensive hydraulic model to evaluate potential impacts to flooding from rainfall events and new models used to evaluate potential salinity impacts during droughts from the project. The hydraulic model was calibrated with observations and further confirmed and—where needed—improved, through a series of model competency group meetings. The final model was used to evaluate the installation of the project for the 10-year and the 100-year return period rainfall events. The salinity valuation was conducted during the drought of 2013, leveraging previous modeling and observations in the region.