kissimmee river restoration project case study

Kissimmee River restoration: a case study

Affiliation.

• 1 South Florida Water Management District, West Palm Beach 33458, USA.
• PMID: 12171366

Channelization of the Kissimmee River transformed a 167 km meandering river into a 9 metre deep, 75 metre wide, 90 km drainage canal (C-38) that is compartmentalized with levees and water control structures into a series of five stagnant pools. Channelization dramatically changed water level and flow characteristics, drained 21,000 hectares of floodplain wetlands and severely impacted fish and wildlife populations. A $500 million dollar restoration project will restore the ecological integrity of the river-floodplain system by reconstructing the natural river channel and reestablishing hydrologic processes. Sixty expectations have been established to quantify the ecosystem's recovery. The first phase of reconstruction was completed in February 2001 and included movement of 9.2 million cubic metres of earth to backfill 12 km of C-38, the explosive demolition of one water control structure, construction of two sections (2.4 km) of new river channel, and reestablishment of 24 contiguous km of river. Numerous social, political, and technical challenges have been encountered during the project's evolution. Recommendations are provided for future restoration projects.

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Kissimmee River restoration: a case study

2002, Water science and technology : a journal of the International Association on Water Pollution Research

Channelization of the Kissimmee River transformed a 167 km meandering river into a 9 metre deep, 75 metre wide, 90 km drainage canal (C-38) that is compartmentalized with levees and water control structures into a series of five stagnant pools. Channelization dramatically changed water level and flow characteristics, drained 21,000 hectares of floodplain wetlands and severely impacted fish and wildlife populations. A $500 million dollar restoration project will restore the ecological integrity of the river-floodplain system by reconstructing the natural river channel and reestablishing hydrologic processes. Sixty expectations have been established to quantify the ecosystem's recovery. The first phase of reconstruction was completed in February 2001 and included movement of 9.2 million cubic metres of earth to backfill 12 km of C-38, the explosive demolition of one water control structure, construction of two sections (2.4 km) of new river channel, and reestablishment of 24 conti...

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P.J. Whalen , L.A. Toth , J.W. Koebel , P.K. Strayer; Kissimmee River restoration: a case study. Water Sci Technol 1 June 2002; 45 (11): 55–62. doi: https://doi.org/10.2166/wst.2002.0379

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Channelization of the Kissimmee River transformed a 167 km meandering river into a 9 metre deep, 75 metre wide, 90 km drainage canal (C-38) that is compartmentalized with levees and water control structures into a series of five stagnant pools. Channelization dramatically changed water level and flow characteristics, drained 21,000 hectares of floodplain wetlands and severely impacted fish and wildlife populations. A $500 million dollar restoration project will restore the ecological integrity of the river-floodplain system by reconstructing the natural river channel and reestablishing hydrologic processes. Sixty expectations have been established to quantify the ecosystem's recovery. The first phase of reconstruction was completed in February 2001 and included movement of 9.2 million cubic metres of earth to backfill 12 km of C-38, the explosive demolition of one water control structure, construction of two sections (2.4 km) of new river channel, and reestablishment of 24 contiguous km of river. Numerous social, political, and technical challenges have been encountered during the project's evolution. Recommendations are provided for future restoration projects.

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Florida has brought this dying river back to life – here’s how its biodiversity bounced back

The world’s biggest river restoration project has returned Florida’s Kissimmee River to good health. Image:  Unsplash/kellysikkema

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• The world’s biggest river restoration project has returned Florida’s Kissimmee River to good health.
• Flood-prevention engineering projects in the 1960s caused severe ecosystem damage and biodiversity loss to the more than 100-mile-long waterway.
• Undoing the damage to the river has seen bird, fish, insect and marine life populations thrive once again.
• Biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse is seen as the fourth-largest threat to humans in the next decade.

What happened to the birds, fish and marine wildlife that used to thrive in the wetland banks of Florida’s Kissimmee River?

Against all odds… they are returning.

Much of the Kissimmee’s original course and ecosystem have now been restored following a $1 billion restoration project that has been more than 20 years in the making. A rescue project has reversed decades of biodiversity decline caused by building canals and waterways to control flooding and hurricanes.

In the last 100 years, more than 90 percent of crop varieties have disappeared from farmers’ fields, and all of the world’s 17 main fishing grounds are now being fished at or above their sustainable limits.

These trends have reduced diversity in our diets, which is directly linked to diseases or health risk factors, such as diabetes, obesity and malnutrition. One initiative which is bringing a renewed focus on biological diversity is the Tropical Forest Alliance .

This global public-private partnership is working on removing deforestation from four global commodity supply chains – palm oil, beef, soy, and pulp and paper.

The Alliance includes businesses, governments, civil society, indigenous people and communities, and international organizations.

Enquire to become a member or partner of the Forum and help stop deforestation linked to supply chains.

Engineering an ecosystem collapse

The river meanders its way from the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes in northern Florida, winding more than 100 miles through lush wetlands to Lake Okeechobee further south, where its waters feed into the Everglades ecosystem. At least, it used to.

Back in the 1960s, in an engineering effort to control the threat of severe storms and flooding, the US Army Corp of Engineers clipped the meandering river’s curves, turning it into a 30-foot deep, 300-foot wide, 56-mile long, straight-line drainage canal . The deep-water channel swiftly moved river water through the wetlands to Lake Okeechobee, then through newly-built canals out to the ocean.

While the short-term impact prevented some flooding, the fast flowing water robbed fish populations of oxygen and left pollutants in the water , instead of the wetlands absorbing them, according to South Florida Water Management District.

The damage to river ecosystems devastated surrounding wildlife and their habitats, decreasing waterfowl numbers by around 90% of previous levels, while the area’s bald eagle population fell by more than two-thirds. Some other bird, fish and mammal species disappeared from the river’s ecosystem.

Have you read?

Diving into water restoration what it takes to prime a project, why wetlands are a versatile climate and biodiversity hack, peatland restoration is crucial but how do we pay for it, restored wetland habitats.

Fast-forward to today and the Kissimmee wetlands are once again rich with marine life, birds and mammals.

The transformation is the result of a collaborative effort by the US Army Corp, state, federal and local partners to repair the environmental damage. Forty miles of wetlands – almost half of the river’s length – have been regenerated by filling in more than 20 miles of the channel with sediment, and excavating the river’s natural bends to reestablish its old course.

The results speak for themselves. As oxygen returns to the waters, fish, insect and bird populations are increasing and some of the species that disappeared have returned, such as ibis and sandpipers.

Data shows that the restoration meets or exceeds the expectations set at the beginning of the project , according to the Center For Environmental Studies, Charles E Schmidt College of Science in Florida.

A similar success story can be found in Chicago where, 50 years after the city's Clean Water Act, the river is said to be thriving – most recently proved by the appearance of a giant snapping turtle in its waters.

Kissimmee river: A blueprint for tackling biodiversity loss

The scale of biodiversity loss and environmental damage to the planet has not gone unnoticed.

Large-scale environmental damage ranks sixth on the top 10 list of threats faced by humanity in the coming two years, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2023.

Looking further ahead, biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse is seen as the fourth-largest threat to humans in the next decade, while incidents of large-scale environmental damage – similar to what happened to the Kissimmee River – also feature in the top 10.

As the largest river restoration project in the world, reviving the Kissimmee River and its wetlands ecosystem could provide a blueprint to reverse other environmental damage to rivers and waterways.

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Kissimmee River restoration: a case study.

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• Whalen PJ 1

Water Science and Technology : a Journal of the International Association on Water Pollution Research , 01 Jan 2002 , 45(11): 55-62 https://doi.org/10.2166/wst.2002.0379   PMID: 12171366 

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Deep in Florida, an ‘ecological disaster’ has been reversed—and wildlife is thriving

Much of Florida’s Kissimmee River has been restored to its natural state, a milestone worth celebrating—and learning from.

If you’ve been to Disney World in Orlando, you’ve been to the Northern Everglades. Much of the water within the famous “river of grass” originates in Central Florida and flows south via the Kissimmee River—one of the more important and lesser-known waterways nationwide.

Sixty years ago, the Kissimmee meandered for more than 100 miles from the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes to Lake Okeechobee, and its floodplains were home to seasonal wetlands rich with life. But in the 1940s, in response to flooding and hurricanes, the state asked the federal government to help build a sprawling network of canals and waterways to drain the land.

The Army Corps of Engineers complied and, beginning in the 1960s, turned the meandering Kissimmee into a 30-foot-deep, channelized canal. Within a few years, populations of waterfowl dropped by 90 percent, bald eagle numbers by 70 percent, and some fish, bird, and mammal species vanished. The channel acted like a pipe, moving water quickly off the landscape to Lake Okeechobee, and then to the ocean. While that helped prevent some flooding in the short term, it robbed the stream of oxygen, which decimated the fish community and gave nutrient pollution no time to settle and be absorbed by the wetlands.

The disrupted hydrology and ecological problems were so glaring that, beginning in the 1990s, the Army Corps and a variety of state, federal, and local partners cooperated to undo the damage. More than 20 years later, at a cost of over $1 billion, the physical restoration of the river is now complete: 40 square miles of wetlands have been reestablished and rehydrated.

Already the biological impact of the project has become clear. As the wetlands have come back, so have the birds. “That response was immediate and pretty impressive,” says Lawrence Glenn, director of water resources with the South Florida Water Management District.

‘Triumph of imagination’

In all, nearly half of the river has been restored to its original state. The project involved filling in 22 miles of the canal, re-carving sections of the old river, and restoring 44 miles of the waterway’s natural meandering paths, according to the Army Corps.

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“It's a triumph of imagination [and] of partnership between the federal government and the state” and other organizations coming together, says Shannon Estenoz , assistant secretary for fish and wildlife and parks with the Department of Interior, who formerly worked for several different environmental organizations in Florida.

Populations of popular game fish, such as bass, have climbed, in part because the water is more oxygenated and invertebrates that demand such conditions, such as mayfly and caddisfly larvae, have returned. Populations of wading and waterbirds are already above intended targets; some species that disappeared during the days of the canal—including ibis, bitterns, avocets, and sandpipers—are back.

The restoration is a grand success story that “shows it’s possible to act at the landscape scale, and [it] demonstrates how quickly ecosystems can recover,” Estenoz adds. And it’s vitally important for water quality and the threatened species that live there, including limpkins, snail kites, and bald eagles, says Congressman Darren Soto, whose district abuts the river.

The Kissimmee will become part of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System, thanks to an act sponsored by Soto and signed into law as a part of the 2023 Consolidated Appropriations Act. The designation entails special protections and future funding for conservation work.  

On the water  

To see the fruits of the restoration myself, I take a late summer ride down the river with photographer and National Geographic Explorer Carlton Ward , Jr., and Adam Bass , vice president of Conservation Florida. The first stretch of the river, directly south of Lake Kissimmee, consists of the old canal—300 feet wide and 30 feet deep, straight as a runway, with almost no birds or wildlife to mention. This part was left as a canal in part to prevent flooding in the Orlando area.

Passing through a lock to get the restored part of the river, the difference is stark and obvious as the river begins its natural flow. The abrupt edges are replaced by thickets and grasses and sabal palms and oaks—and we start seeing birds: herons, egrets, limpkins, and more.   Surveys show that there are 50 species of fish in the Kissimmee, nearly 70 species of wetland-dependent birds, over 20 types of reptiles and amphibians, and four mammals that only live in the rehydrated marshes.

It's the rainy season and the wetlands are flooded, partially submerging vast fields of grasses and flowers. We pass dozens of alligators and bass fishermen. Though we are in crowded South Florida, there are long stretches where we see no people and hear only the sounds of frogs and waterbirds. This is still a wilderness. The river wiggles and bends and sometimes braids, leaving multiple pathways to choose from.

The next morning we wake before dawn and head out. As light creeps over the water nearly 10 snail kites—a subtropical species that’s considered endangered in the United States—fly overhead, many with apple snails in their beaks, large mollusks nearly the size of my fist.

These medium-sized hawks have striking red eyes and hooked beaks; the males are an almost bluish gray, with cream-and-slate undertails, the females a mottled chestnut and white.

Near the town of Lorida, we pull off at the Istokpoga Canal Boat Ramp—one of the only direct ways to access the restored part of the river, and meet Paul Gray, science coordinator with Audubon Florida. He also explains how the restoration project adds 100,000 acre-feet of water storage, which helps prevent flooding, and slows much of the water down, allowing nutrients to settle out.

One night, we make camp along the river, serenaded by tree frogs and katydids—and watch fireflies flash in an open field, mirrored by twinkles of lightning in a brooding storm cloud on the horizon. Camping in Florida in August is not for the faint of heart, though, as a self-regenerating swarm of mosquitos appears at dusk—the likes of which I’ve never experienced.

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When the channelization was completed in the 1970s, everybody realized it was a mistake. Locals had been against it from the beginning, explains Monrad Chandler, a longtime resident of the area, because “a lot of people used to make a living on the river.”

We’re sitting on a parcel of land he owns right next to the Kissimmee. His son-in-law, Matt Pearce, ranches on this land, where he practices rotational grazing—cattle are currently excluded from this area, allowing the plants to recover and grow back.

“When they channelized the river, there was no marsh no more … then no ducks, no snipe, [no] wading birds,” he says. “A lot of people had to change their livelihood.”

“It was an ecological disaster,” Gray agrees.

But now, those birds are coming back—and the restored section looks essentially the way it used to, Chandler says, fondly recalling hunting and fishing on the river as a youngster.

These restored wetlands provide corridors for larger wildlife such as Florida panthers and bears and habitat for endangered species, including grasshopper sparrows. By storing water, they also help prevent flooding during storms. ( Related: How America’s most endangered cat could help save Florida .)

“The Kissimmee River accomplished an amazing feat last summer when Hurricane Ian slammed Florida,” Ward says. “It filled to the 100-year flood level and did its job naturally absorbing billions of gallons of water, with no loss of property, because of the restoration efforts.”

Yet there’s still much work to be done. About half of the Kissimmee consists of a canal, and there’s a big backlog of hydrological and research projects. One vital and imminent project involves raising the water level in Lake Kissimmee—and thus increasing water storage.

Gray explains that various areas of Florida—including Orlando—are running out of easily accessible water, draining the state’s aquifers. “These water projects are going to become more and more important for the future of Florida,” Gray says.

“This project is going to be saving water, going to be slowing it down—not only is that a benefit to wildlife, but to water management, and our ability to meet [our] water needs.”

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• kissimmee river restoration project fact sheet 2022

Kissimmee River restoration: a case study.

P. Whalen , L. Toth , J. Koebel + 1 more authors

Jun 1, 2002

Influential Citations

Water science and technology : a journal of the International Association on Water Pollution Research

Key takeaway

The $500 million restoration project on the kissimmee river aims to restore ecological integrity and hydrologic processes, addressing social, political, and technical challenges..

Channelization of the Kissimmee River transformed a 167 km meandering river into a 9 metre deep, 75 metre wide, 90 km drainage canal (C-38) that is compartmentalized with levees and water control structures into a series of five stagnant pools. Channelization dramatically changed water level and flow characteristics, drained 21,000 hectares of floodplain wetlands and severely impacted fish and wildlife populations. A $500 million dollar restoration project will restore the ecological integrity of the river-floodplain system by reconstructing the natural river channel and reestablishing hydrologic processes. Sixty expectations have been established to quantify the ecosystem's recovery. The first phase of reconstruction was completed in February 2001 and included movement of 9.2 million cubic metres of earth to backfill 12 km of C-38, the explosive demolition of one water control structure, construction of two sections (2.4 km) of new river channel, and reestablishment of 24 contiguous km of river. Numerous social, political, and technical challenges have been encountered during the project's evolution. Recommendations are provided for future restoration projects.

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• Moscow Oblast

Elektrostal

Elektrostal Localisation : Country Russia , Oblast Moscow Oblast . Available Information : Geographical coordinates , Population, Area, Altitude, Weather and Hotel . Nearby cities and villages : Noginsk , Pavlovsky Posad and Staraya Kupavna .

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