National Information Collaboration on Ecohydraulics (NICE): Numerical Models for Fish
THIS IS A 2 PHASE APPROACH.
SOI DUE:
18 December 2023 FULL PROPOSAL DUE:
19 January 2024 Background There are many locks and dams, navigation channels, and increasingly beneficial sediment-use sites across the Mississippi watershed and throughout the United States.
Interest is high in understanding navigation impacts on fisheries and how navigation infrastructure can be used to manage fisheries in the role of navigation.
Currently, fisheries impacts are often not explicitly accounted for in lock and dam operations.
For example, nearly all dams in the Mississippi Basin and southeastern United States are, by and large, not designed to accommodate fish passage for native fish.
Moreover, many of these dams are now being viewed as possible components for control and management of aquatic nuisance species.
Some native fishes are now protected under provisions of the Endangered Species Act further heightening interest in the possible influence of locks and dams on fish movement.
A primary challenge of the proposed work is to develop strategies that allow fish movement past locks and dams while not impacting navigation operations.
The National Information Collaboration for Ecohydraulics (NICE) has been established with the mission of applying ecohydraulic principles to navigation infrastructure at multiple scales and facilitating accurate engineering forecasts of fisheries outcomes based on research and development for multiple contexts.
Program Description/Objective:
(brief description of the anticipated work) The goal of this project is to address the challenge of developing advanced numerical modeling near infrastructure with known accuracy and precision, especially in difficult-to-quantify environments such as dam gates wells, lock chambers, tailraces, and fishways.
Multidimensional models are useful for estimating hydraulic conditions that influence fish, but the need for accuracy and precision in these applications is not well understood.
In fact, new metrics of hydraulic model performance that incorporate observed fish behavior outcomes are needed to improve the utility of multidimensional models in predicting ecohydraulic outcomes.
Field sites will be in the Mississippi River and its tributaries with a particular focus on application to future fish passage structures in the middle Mississippi River.
Public Benefit These studies will help ensure the preservation and protection of numerous threatened & endangered (T&E) fish species in the Mississippi River that could be impacted by a reduction in lock use.
The protection of these fish species has been determined to be of national significance due to their past population decline.
In addition to T&E species, other aquatic species will also benefit from providing this hydrologic connectivity and thereby help maintain natural ecosystem trophic balances and biodiversity.
Anticipated increases in public ecosystem goods and services from these environmental management decisions include aesthetic and economic value for present and future generations in areas such as recreational use, sports fishing, improved water quality, and naturally functioning ecosystems.
.
SOI DUE:
18 December 2023 FULL PROPOSAL DUE:
19 January 2024 Background There are many locks and dams, navigation channels, and increasingly beneficial sediment-use sites across the Mississippi watershed and throughout the United States.
Interest is high in understanding navigation impacts on fisheries and how navigation infrastructure can be used to manage fisheries in the role of navigation.
Currently, fisheries impacts are often not explicitly accounted for in lock and dam operations.
For example, nearly all dams in the Mississippi Basin and southeastern United States are, by and large, not designed to accommodate fish passage for native fish.
Moreover, many of these dams are now being viewed as possible components for control and management of aquatic nuisance species.
Some native fishes are now protected under provisions of the Endangered Species Act further heightening interest in the possible influence of locks and dams on fish movement.
A primary challenge of the proposed work is to develop strategies that allow fish movement past locks and dams while not impacting navigation operations.
The National Information Collaboration for Ecohydraulics (NICE) has been established with the mission of applying ecohydraulic principles to navigation infrastructure at multiple scales and facilitating accurate engineering forecasts of fisheries outcomes based on research and development for multiple contexts.
Program Description/Objective:
(brief description of the anticipated work) The goal of this project is to address the challenge of developing advanced numerical modeling near infrastructure with known accuracy and precision, especially in difficult-to-quantify environments such as dam gates wells, lock chambers, tailraces, and fishways.
Multidimensional models are useful for estimating hydraulic conditions that influence fish, but the need for accuracy and precision in these applications is not well understood.
In fact, new metrics of hydraulic model performance that incorporate observed fish behavior outcomes are needed to improve the utility of multidimensional models in predicting ecohydraulic outcomes.
Field sites will be in the Mississippi River and its tributaries with a particular focus on application to future fish passage structures in the middle Mississippi River.
Public Benefit These studies will help ensure the preservation and protection of numerous threatened & endangered (T&E) fish species in the Mississippi River that could be impacted by a reduction in lock use.
The protection of these fish species has been determined to be of national significance due to their past population decline.
In addition to T&E species, other aquatic species will also benefit from providing this hydrologic connectivity and thereby help maintain natural ecosystem trophic balances and biodiversity.
Anticipated increases in public ecosystem goods and services from these environmental management decisions include aesthetic and economic value for present and future generations in areas such as recreational use, sports fishing, improved water quality, and naturally functioning ecosystems.
.
Related Programs
Basic, Applied, and Advanced Research in Science and Engineering
Department Of Defense
Agency: Department of Defense
Office: Dept. of the Army -- Corps of Engineers
Estimated Funding: $5,000,000
Office: Dept. of the Army -- Corps of Engineers
Estimated Funding: $5,000,000
Obtain Full Opportunity Text:
Program Guidelines and Application Instructions
Additional Information of Eligibility:
This opportunity is restricted to non-federal partners of the Great Rivers Cooperative Ecosystems Studies Unit (CESU).
Full Opportunity Web Address:
https://www.arts.gov/program-solicitation-shakespeare-american-communities
Contact:
Agency Email Description:
Stacy Thurman
Agency Email:
Date Posted:
2023-11-16
Application Due Date:
Archive Date:
2024-05-31
Social Entrepreneurship
Spotlight
Keeping Half the Profits Beats Non-profits for Social Impact
Melbourne social enterprise Who Gives A Crap sold nearly 3 million rolls of toilet paper in 2014/15 and gave half the proceeds to WaterAid Australia, but co-founder Simon Griffiths says the donation would have been less had the startup adopted a non-profit model when it launched two years ago.
Learn How to Identify and Avoid Grant Scams
