Growing Populations, Changing Landscapes Studies from India, China, and the United States (2001) / Chapter Skim
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10. Transformation of the South Florida Landscape
10. Transformation of the South Florida Landscape
Pages 237-274
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From page 237... ...
Human interventions in South Florida's natural systems have been dramatic, with notable effects on the quality of life. Since 1900, 11,027 square kilometers of natural land in the study region have been shifted to agricultural and urban uses in connection with federal, state, and private efforts to provide drainage and flood control.
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From page 238... ...
The discussion in this chapter is based generally on the concept of land use coupling, presented as a functional relationship between an agricultural hinterland and the urban markets for foodstuffs (Walker, 1998~. When an agricultural region supplies only markets in nearby urban settlements that is, the region constitutes a closed market for agricultural production the regional land use system, including both agricultural and urban activities, is said to be coupled.
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From page 239... ...
The chapter begins with a physical description of the study region, followed by a description of the evolution of land use in South Florida over the twentieth century. In doing so, it notes the ecological implications of changes in land use and, because drainage and flood control levees have been instrumental in enabling changes in land cover, describes the state's drainage activities, as well as the initial stages of federal intervention in flood control.
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From page 240... ...
The terrain of the South Florida hydrologic system is barely more than a few meters above sea level and has virtually no perceptible local relief. It slopes very gently south from Lake Okeechobee that is, only 3-6 centimeters per kilometer over the 145 kilometers to Florida Bay at the tip of the peninsula.
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From page 241... ...
The rest lies to the east of the Atlantic coastal ridge and in the west drain to the Gulf of Mexico (see Craig, 1991; Davis and Odgen, 1994; Lodge, 1994~. Changes in Land Use Land use in South Florida has changed significantly since 1900.
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From page 242... ...
The extensive Everglades marsh, built through peat depositions over the past 5,000 years (Gleason and Stone, 1994) and once covering about 12,000 square kilometers, was reduced by 50 percent in the twentieth century, to its present territory of 6,000 square kilometers.
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From page 243... ...
The 600 square kilometers of swamp forest once found just south of Lake Okeechobee in northwestern Palm Beach County vanished early with
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From page 244... ...
agricultural development. Since then, the peripheral wet prairies and the coastal cypress strand have disappeared or have been reduced to scattered remnants because of urban expansion from the eastern coastal ridge.
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From page 245... ...
Key Drivers of Changes in Land Use Rapid population growth has been a major component of the decoupling process. The population of South Florida grew from just a few thousand in 1900 to more than 4.6 million in 1990 (see Table 10-1~.
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From page 246... ...
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From page 247... ...
After a slowdown during the Great Depression of the 1930s and World War II, rapid population growth continued in the late 1940s, driven increasingly by the tourism industry, the influx of retirees, and the development of urban-based industries more generally. During that period, population growth accelerated in the western coastal areas, including Lee and Collier counties.
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From page 248... ...
Moreover, because the region is a low-lying wetland, FIGURE 10-7 Public lands, South Florida, 1988. SOURCE: South Florida Water Management District, 1988.
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From page 249... ...
Development was made possible by the release of federal lands through the Swamp Lands Act of 1850. Ultimately, Florida received over 95,000 square kilometers of federal land, about 65 percent of its entire territory (Carter, 1974~.
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From page 250... ...
1900-1930: Drainage and Land Conversion With the construction in the early 1900s of a coastal railroad and the initiation of major drainage activities south of Lake Okeechobee, human manipulation of the South Florida ecosystem increased rapidly. Wealthy investors from Florida and northern cities took advantage of cheap land prices and government incentives to establish an extensive agricultural area south of Lake Okeechobee and coastal resort communities and port cities from Palm Beach through the Florida Keys.
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From page 251... ...
In 1920, 23,000 persons were living on farms and in rural settlements in South Florida, cultivating 138 square kilometers; by 1927, 92,000 inhabitants were cultivating 186 square kilometers (Blake, 1980~. Along the south shore of Lake Okeechobee, the soil was fertile, a mixture of mineral lake sediments and organic matter from submerged vegetation (Snyder and Davidson, 1994~.
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From page 252... ...
1930-1950: Flood Control and Consolidation The period 1930-1950 saw a fundamental restructuring of the South Florida region that changed the internal dynamics of the two emerging, yet increasingly separate, urban and agricultural systems. As a result, natural resource utilization and land conversion steadily increased throughout the period and accelerated in the 1950s.
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From page 253... ...
Although several drainage projects had been tried in the Everglades area since the late 1800s, the C&SF project was a major turning point for water management in the region, because it served objectives beyond flood control and water conservation such as prevention of saltwater intrusion, improved navigation, preservation of fish and wildlife habitat, and maintenance of a water supply for Everglades National Park (ENP)
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From page 254... ...
Many of these problems, however, were resolved by the late 1940s with the development of new agricultural fertilizers and pesticides. A primary agricultural sector that failed to change significantly during the 1930-1950 period was sugar, because government-imposed quotas constrained sugarcane production (Sitterson, 1953~.
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From page 255... ...
Possibly in response, farmers seeking new agricultural land went even further inland, moving from the upland pine forests along the coastal ridge into the interior wet prairie and saw grass marsh areas. Among other things, the agricultural area south of Lake Okeechobee grew rapidly.
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From page 256... ...
Congress, which encouraged a large influx of Cubans, accelerated the growth in the population and the economy of South Florida. The population growth meant dramatic increases in the local demand for land, much of it in the noncoastal areas.
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From page 257... ...
Two of the more obvious were the rapid increase of agricultural land in the EAA, and the increase in urban land, particularly around the cities of Miami and Fort Lauderdale, and along the entire coastline heading northward to West Palm Beach. The rapid urbanization along the Atlantic coast led to other important shifts in land use patterns.
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From page 258... ...
The continuous strip of urbanized land along the Atlantic coast became more clearly defined and dominated the roughly 160-kilometer stretch from northern Palm Beach County to southern Dade County. Much of the conversion of land to urban uses from the 1970s to the late 1980s occurred within or adjacent to settled areas.
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From page 259... ...
For example, winter freezes in more northerly locations in the state have accelerated the development of citrus production in South Florida, particularly Hendry County. The continued rapid population growth and land conversion in South Florida have meant dramatic shifts in the agricultural economy of many areas within the region (Solecki et al., 2000~.
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From page 260... ...
Throughout the region farmland is under intense conversion pressure, and in some counties agricultural activities are becoming scarcer. Even though the South Florida economy has become more diverse and robust, profound questions have emerged recently about the general quality of life and social cohesion of the region (Croucher, 1997; Portes and Stepick, 1993~.
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From page 261... ...
These ethnic population shifts have helped to cause land use shifts in the region beyond the obvious changes that come with increased population. The heightened Caribbean and Latin American presence in Dade County has been associated with the flight of whites northward to Broward and Palm Beach Counties (Boswell and Curtis, 1991~.
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From page 262... ...
Although the full impact of the project on land use in the region will not materialize for another 20 years, the effort may well be as important as the Central and Southern Florida Flood Control Project first authorized in the late 1940s. EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE OF THE PROCESS OF LAND USE CHANGE Thus far this chapter has described in very broad terms the process of land use change in South Florida and its links with population growth.
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SOURCE: South Florida Water Management District, 1988. The Impact of the Changing Regional Economy on Land Use During the early period (pre-1930)
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From page 264... ...
than during the periods 1953-1973 and 1973-1986. Between 1900 and 1953 about 2,625 square kilometers of natural lands were converted to agricultural or urban uses, or an average of 4,953 hectares a year.
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From page 265... ...
Over time, natural area sites for new residential areas declined, so developers turned to farmland. As farmers lost agricultural land, other more interior land was converted from natural land cover to agricultural production.
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From page 266... ...
Even at canal sites remaining in natural ground cover (that is, nonagricultural and nonurban land) , significant environmental degradation occurred, such as extreme changes in the natural peTABLE 10-5 Canals and Natural Lands Encroachment, South Florida (percent)
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From page 267... ...
. Then, based on grid assignments to the South Florida region, we produced frequency counts for the observance of these exotic species in relation to three components of infrastructure roads, canals, and levees.
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From page 268... ...
The upper panel of the table shows observed and expected frequencies of grid cells containing both an infrastructure component and some exotic species. Thus, in 33 grids can be found both a road and some Brazilian pepper.
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From page 269... ...
The most rapid population growth first took place along the Atlantic coast, particularly in and around some of the early towns, including Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, and Miami. Later, in mid-century, population growth accelerated on the Gulf of Mexico coast.
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From page 270... ...
Government subsidies of population growth in the form of tax laws favoring large dwellings and utility pricing practices also added to the overall growth. At mid-century, the expanded drainage operations and flood control activities carried out by the U.S.
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From page 271... ...
Second, the policies channeled land development to particular types of sites or areas within the larger region. Federal responses to demands for increased flood control and now for increased environmental protection of the Everglades system have moderated the pace and distribution of land conversion.
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1948. Lake Okeechobee, Wellspring of the Everglades.
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From page 273... ...
1991. Population growth and migration: Southeast Florida in regional context.
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