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Environmental media discourse analysis allows researchers to explore thematic patterns in media coverage of environmental issues through qualitative observations and quantitative coding. In this paper, we review newspaper media coverage in Florida pertaining to the connections between agriculture, other non-point pollution sources, and downstream ecosystem health. We analyzed 930 articles from 2007 through 2019 to determine common patterns in how these issues are covered by Florida media, including patterns in the causes of environmental problems, potential solutions, and stakeholders mentioned. Findings suggest that water quality problems are often framed as unpredictable or episodic rather than chronic, and as requiring (and only potentially being remediated by) state-level centralized technological or infrastructural solutions. Stakeholder relationships are framed as adversarial, with environmentalists and the agricultural sector as opponents. This case study highlights key power dynamics, barriers, and opportunities for better managing and communicating about agricultural land use practices and associated downstream environmental impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Future changes in land use/land cover (LULC) and climate (CC) affect watershed hydrology. Despite past research on estimating such changes, studies on the impacts of both these nonstationary stressors on urban watersheds have been limited. Urban watersheds have several important details such as hydraulic infrastructure that call for fine-scale models to predict the impacts of LULC and CC on watershed hydrology. In this paper, a fine-scale hydrologic model—Personal Computer Storm Water Management Model (PCSWMM)—was applied to predict the individual and joint impacts of LULC changes and CC on surface runoff attributes (peak and volume) in 3800 urban subwatersheds in Midwest Florida. The subwatersheds a range of characteristics in terms of drainage area, surface imperviousness, ground slope and LULC distribution. The PCSWMM also represented several hydraulic structures (e.g., ponds and pipes) across the subwatersheds. We analyzed changes in the runoff attributes to determine which stressor is most responsible for the changes and what subwatersheds are mostly sensitive to such changes. Six 24-h design rainfall events (5- to 200-year recurrence intervals) were studied under historical (2010) and future (year 2070) climate and LULC. We evaluated the response of the subwatersheds in terms of runoff peak and volume to the design rainfall events using the PCSWMM. The results indicated that, overall, CC has a greater impact on the runoff attributes than LULC change. We also found that LULC and climate induced changes in runoff are generally more pronounced in greater recurrence intervals and subwatersheds with smaller drainage areas and milder slopes. However, no relationship was found between the changes in runoff and original subwatershed imperviousness; this can be due to the small increase in urban land cover projected for the study area. This research helps urban planners and floodplain managers identify the required strategies to protect urban watersheds against future LULC change and CC. [Display omitted] • Changes in runoff attributes due to CC and LULC change in 3800 urban watersheds. • Greater changes for runoff peak than volume. • Greater changes in both runoff attributes for milder slope and smaller watersheds. • Dominant impacts of CC over LULC change for both runoff attribute. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper possesses two related objectives. The first is to unite the bid-rent model of von Thünen and urban theorists with historical analysis in the interest of providing a theoretical approach to the comprehension of regional land-cover and land-use change. The second objective is to deploy the theoretical approach in an attempt to account for a specific change process, namely loss of wetlands in South Florida. Recently, the Annals of the Association of American Geographers published a paper addressing this issue ( ). Meindl, Alderman, and Waylen describe the impact of claims making on efforts to drain and sell land in South Florida during a critical period in the early 20th century. The present paper is put forward, in part, to provide additional context. In particular, we identify claims making and the development discourse it legitimated as part of a complex evolution in the region's socionature, and the regimes governing land-cover and land-use change that led to wetlands reclamation. To explain these regime shifts, we criticize conventional bid-rent theory and develop a model integrating urban and agricultural land use whose structure is affected by development. We then deploy this model to the Everglades case, using historical narrative and remotely sensed land-cover data. We conclude the paper calling for integrated theoretical approaches in attempts to comprehend land-cover and land-use change and associated environmental problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Landuse changes and commercial developments along coastlines often put intense pressure on coastal environments. In this paper we examine market and political factors that have influenced the exploitation of Biscayne Bay in South Florida, and the evolution of institutions and policies that govern the Bay's uses. While public enthusiasm to save the Bay continues to be strong, resolving conflicts among interest groups needs government intervention. One of the largest yet weakest interest groups is the general public, whose physical access to the estuarine resources has been reduced over time due to the private ownership of most properties around the Bay. Our paper suggests certain regulatory, economic, and institutional mechanisms needed to achieve more efficient and equitable resource use outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of Plantation conjures an image that identifies the North Florida / South Georgia region of the U. S. Leon County attracted many cotton planters from Georgia, Virginia, Maryland, North and South Carolina in the 1820's to the 1850's. Up to the beginning of the Civil War, Leon County was the 5th largest producer of cotton counting all counties from Florida and Georgia. The Civil War brought the plantation culture to a standstill. The plantations transformed the environment based on their need for open fields in which to cultivate different crops, or raise a variety of animals with the help of slaves. From the 1900's many plantations abandoned their land to nature producing a deep change in the local landscape. Today plantations are not used as much for planting crops but more for hunting or as tree farms. The hunting plantations do not grow crops but provide good conditions for the hunting of animals and birds. Other plantations were torn apart, sold and now are part of the Tallahassee urban fabric. In other words, they disappeared. The transformation of the plantations has been slow and steady, and has become the image of the area, even the region. The paper shows five plantations that represent five different evolutions of these traditional landscapes. The landscapes have evolved to accommodate the very local but fluid definition of place. It is this transformation, this evolving identity which helped preserve some of the traditional landscapes and the traditional architecture on them. The most prominent feature of the plantation is the "Big House" or plantation house. The house embodies all aspects of the plantation life style. The construction materials and methods reflected the times, the technologies and the available resources. The research has been done mainly in the archives of the Tallahassee Trust for Historic Preservation. The results, still pending, explain the land typology as it evolved from the golden decades of the plantation culture to the present day land use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drought index is a useful tool to assess and respond to drought. However, current drought indices could not fully reveal land use effects and they have limitations in applications. Besides, El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), strongly influences the climate of Florida. Hence, understanding ENSO patterns on a regional scale and developing a new land use drought index suitable for Florida are critical in agriculture and water resources planning and management. This paper presents a 32 km high resolution land use adapted drought index, which relies on five types of land uses (lake, urban, forest, wetland, and agriculture) in Florida. The land uses were obtained from National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR) data from 1979 to 2002. The results showed that Bowen ratio responded to land use and could be used as an indicator to monitor drought events. Then, an innovative regional land use drought index was developed from the normalized Bowen ratio, which could reflect not only the level of severity during drought events resulting from land use effects, but also La Niña driven drought impacts. The proposed new index may help scientists answer the critical questions about drought effect on various land uses and potential feedbacks of changes in land use and land cover to climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing studies of the relationship between housing price dynamics and housing supply-- which have relied upon questionable proxies for supply elasticity--have yielded highly mixed results. In this paper we provide new evidence on this relationship based on actual estimates of the price elasticity of supply .for local markets in Florida. Intermarket differences in housing supply elasticity are found to explain much of the variation in housing price movements and new construction during the most recent boom-bust cycle. Additionally, we find that variance in the elasticity of housing supply can be attributed to differences in land availability and the local fiscal and regulatory environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Projecting the space needed for the disposal of the dead is often overlooked as a planning function, but the permanence of allocating land to cemetery use makes it critical to long range land use planning. There is very little contemporary guidance for planners on the variables which should be considered when projecting the land use needs of the dead. In this paper we present a method that illustrates the complexities of projecting landscapes of death. We then apply this method to the case of Palm Beach County, Florida, a county of over a million residents, many of whom are elderly, that may experience a shortage of cemetery land in the coming decades. This paper raises important issues when planning for the land use needs of the dead including burial migration and problems in estimating existing capacity. This work demonstrates that planners need to take a more active role in planning for the dead, especially given the lack of information on interment capacity in most locations in the country. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

As a result of recent changes in the requirements involving hurricane extreme events (e.g., wind velocities), the Florida Department of Transportation has moved away from cable-stayed signs, signals, and lights systems to mast arm/pole structures. Unfortunately, the newer systems develop significant lateral and torque loading on their foundations (e.g., drilled shafts). Current design practice for a mast arm/pole foundation is to treat lateral loading and torsion separately (i.e., uncoupled); however, recent field-testing suggests otherwise. This paper reports on the results of 91 centrifuge tests. 54 of the tests were conducted in dry sand and 37, in saturated sands. The tests varied the lateral load to torque ratios, shaft embedment depths, and soil strengths. The experiments revealed that even though the torsional resistances of the shafts were not influenced by lateral load, the shafts’ lateral resistance was significantly impacted by torsion. Reductions in lateral resistance of 50% were recorded for shafts under high torque to lateral load ratios. Using the free earth support assumption and the ultimate soil pressure the soil pressure distribution along the shaft was developed. Using force and moment equilibrium, as well as the applied torque, maximum shear, and moments were computed. The predicted values were found to be within 25% (10% on average, except for the tests in saturated dense sand with polymer slurry) of the experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes a critical look at the Smart Growth movement and its reliance on traditional central planning to achieve its goals. Using statewide planning in Oregon, Florida, and Washington State as examples, the paper examines the planning focus of recent efforts to manage growth through land-use planning at the state level. It then applies the Austrian critique of economic planning to the contemporary Smart Growth movement in the United States as it is reflected in statewide planning laws. The calculation debate focused primarily on the technical question of whether bureaucratic planning could, in fact, achieve market outcomes. In the current debate over Smart Growth, planning combines political and bureaucratic decisionmaking. The political context in which planning decisions are made fundamentally alters the decision making process, shifting the emphasis to articulate knowledge as the foundation for policymaking. To be relevant in the current debate over planning, the calculation debate needs to be extended to include a political dimension to its critique of planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • The trends of surface runoff and flood area changes were different. • Rainfall change is the dominant driver compared with land use change. • There are coupled effects from rainfall and land use changes on both surface runoff and flood area. • The easily flooded areas would experience negative coupled effects under future rainfall and land use conditions. • The areas with inadequate drainage and low elevation variation would be of high probability to suffer flooding issues. Future rainfall and land use are two important factors for flood management since they both directly and indirectly affect the functionality and performance of urban stormwater drainage infrastructures. Although some studies have already examined the coupled effects of future rainfall and land use conditions, they have not concluded how such effects on both surface runoff and flood areas would change with regional surface elevation variation and infrastructure conditions. This paper analyzed the coupled effects of future rainfall and land use on urban drainage systems in terms of surface runoff quantity and flood area changes using EPA SWMM. Future downscaled and bias-corrected precipitation projections for 2040–2060 and 2080–2099 from "Downscaled CMIP3 and CMIP5 Climate and Hydrology Projections" Archive and future land use for 2050 s and 2090 s from EPA ICLUS project were used for the City of Tampa in Florida (USA). It was shown that potential runoff volume and flood area changes ranged from −40% to 160%, and −40% to 400% due to rainfall change, while potential changes induced by land use change ranged from 0% to 3.5%, and 0% to 18% respectively. Additionally, this study examined the coupled effects of future rainfall and land use changes on flood area variations, considering the capacity of drainage infrastructure and elevation variation of study site. Results showed that flood area variations are not solely influenced by runoff quantity changes due to the two external drivers, but also by other factors. Specifically, in low-relief areas with inadequate drainage infrastructure and less elevation variation, these two drivers have no additive effects on the percentage of flood area changes. In contrast, in areas with adequate drainage infrastructure and greater surface elevation variation, there are additive effects from rainfall and land use changes on flood area expansions. These findings have important implications for stakeholders involved in city planning and flooding control, particularly for urban areas facing future precipitation and urbanization challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The state of Florida is renowned for its globally recognized biodiversity richness, but it currently suffers from an ongoing population boom and corresponding urban sprawl resulting in the emergence of severe conservation conflicts, especially in southern parts of Florida. To mitigate the intense competing land use situation and comprehend the dynamic complex relationship between conservation and development, this study argues that both ecological and social dimensions should be taken into account for spatial analysis and underpin zoning decisions empirically in the phase of landscape planning. Choosing South Florida as the study site, we implemented focal-species-based spatial conservation prioritization analysis using Zonation software to identify the highest priority areas and accordingly evaluate two varying land use scenarios provided by the Florida 2070 Project. From a novel perspective of impact avoidance, the inverse prioritization method was applied in this study, intended to minimize negative human impacts and examine the effectiveness and suitability of Florida's future land use projections. After comparing and integrating social-ecological data through mapping, the study uncovered a holistic view of conservation conflicts in Florida and articulated trade-offs for all parties of the local ecosystem striving to reconcile human–wildlife conflicts in Florida and imply a sustainable win-win strategy in the stage of regional landscape planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Anastasia Mosquito Control District (AMCD) of St. Johns County (SJC), St. Augustine, Florida, USA, was formed in 1948 to cover the 27 km2 of Anastasia Island and control the black salt marsh mosquito, Aedes taeniorhynchus (Wiedemann). Today AMCD covers the entirety of SJC (1588 km2) and Ae. taeniorhynchus is still the most abundant mosquito species in the county. Here we present the findings from 16 years' worth of surveillance records of AMCD mosquito populations in conjunction with annual land-use land-cover (LULC) change and climate data to better understand how environmental factors have impacted SJC Ae. taeniorhynchus populations in recent history. The statistical regression and geospatial analyses demonstrated the presence of spatial and temporal clusters of Ae. taeniorhynchus populations in terms of abundance and distribution. Additionally, Ae. taeniorhynchus abundance and distribution were significantly influenced by the annual changes of LULC and climate variables. The linear regression analysis using standard least square and corrected Akaike Information Criterion revealed a migration of mangrove swamps and saltwater marshes that corresponded to a southern shift in the spatial–temporal distribution of Ae. taeniorhynchus communities. This was confirmed by the significant change in LULC characteristics between three representative years (2004, 2009, 2014) and the redistribution of Ae. taeniorhynchus abundances represented by Moran's I index values. The annual values of four climate variables (average and minimum temperature, mean dew point, and maximum vapor pressure deficit) and three LULC types (mangrove swamps, saltwater pools within saltmarshes, and upland nonforested) significantly predicted annual abundance and redistribution of Ae. taeniorhynchus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fenster, M.S.; Hughes, C.P., and Stutz, M.L., 2022. A survey of global mixed-energy and wave-dominated barrier island distribution and development. Journal of Coastal Research, 38(4), 795–806. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. This study quantifies the length, percentage, and type of development found on global mixed-energy and wave-dominated coastal plain and deltaic barrier islands. Google Earth photographic imagery from 2015–2017 was used to measure the lengths of individual islands, identify infrastructure types 300 m landward of the shoreline, and measure the alongshore extent of each island's land uses. The United States Geological Survey's land-use classification scheme enabled categorization and quantification of predominant structure types. The results from this study showed that, of the 1444 mixed-energy and wave-dominated barrier islands located within 53 countries around the world: (1) 832 (approximately 59%) of those barriers islands have some type of development; (2) approximately 16% of the total length of shorelines (approximately 1,793 km/11,249 km) are developed; (3) wave-dominated barriers (approximately 17%) are more developed than mixed-energy (approximately 14%) barriers; (4) coastal plain (approximately 21%) settings have double the development than deltaic settings; (5) the U.S. contains approximately 66% of all developed global barrier island shorelines and the highest percent development of mixed-energy (New Jersey approximately 67%) and wave-dominated (Florida approximately 62%) coastal plain barrier islands in the world; and (6) high-density, residential dwellings dominate development type and comprise an average 14% of the world's barrier island shorelines. Finally, development percentage and/or land use type do not appear to depend on or correlate with hydrodynamic or geologic setting and coastal processes and geology do not influence development type. Instead, site specific or regional factors most likely dictate the percentage and type of development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land-use and land-cover (LULC) change is a primary driver of terrestrial carbon release, often through the conversion of forest into agriculture or expansion of urban areas. Classification schemes are a key component of landscape analyses. This study creates a novel LULC classification scheme by incorporating ecological data to redefine classes of an existing LULC classification based on variation in above-ground tree carbon. A tree inventory was conducted for 531 plots within a subbasin of the Tampa Bay Watershed, Florida, USA. Above-ground tree carbon was estimated using the i-Tree model. Plots were classified using the Florida Land Use Cover Classification System. Mean quantities of above-ground tree carbon, by class, were tested for statistical differences. A reclassification was conducted based on these differences. Sub-classes within a given "land cover" class were similar for six of the seven classes. Significant differences were found within the "Wetlands" class based on vegetation cover, forming two distinct groups: "Forested Wetlands" and "Non-forested and Mangrove Wetlands". The urban "land use" class showed differences between "Residential" and "Non-residential" sub-classes, forming two new classes. LULC classifications can sometimes aggregate areas perceived as similar that are in fact distinct regarding ecological variables. These aggregations can obscure the true variation in a parameter at the landscape scale. Therefore, a study's classification system should be designed to reflect landscape variation in the parameter(s) of interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Particulate matter (PM) recovery from street sweeping (SS), catch basin (CB), and unit operation (UO) is essential for sustainability of these urban hydrologic functional units (HFUs). PM inventory in HFUs is of increasing interest. PM granulometry and transformations thereof are needed to examine loads and export from HFUs. This study uniquely examines transformation of PM distributions recovered from SS, CB, and UO, representing serial HFUs coupled from up- to downstream in drainage systems. HFUs are also indexed to land uses (residential, highway, commercial) across Florida (n=470 samples). Results indicate the dominant PM mass is sand-size from 425 to 1,000 μm. Gravimetrically, particle size distributions (PSDs) are represented by a cumulative gamma distribution (CGD) (Radj2:0.98–0.99). Particle number density (PND) is represented by a power law model (PLM) with a log-log transformation (R2:0.86–0.89). Results indicate UOs (n=163) as a downstream HFU had PSDs that were less heterodisperse and finer than CB (n=155) and SS (n=152). PNDs are statistically consistent between SS, CB, and UO, given the transport of suspended PM from pavement through UOs, which cannot capture suspended PM. PM from SS is statistically more enriched in the suspended and sediment fractions than CBs and UOs due to export from these HFUs. Land use has been hypothesized as a factor impacting PSDs. However, results indicate that the impact of land use is not statistically significant for recovered PSDs. These findings are a useful resource of PM granulometry for urban PM residuals and facilitate implementation of more sustainable drainage systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

No other form of property ownership is as synonymous with Florida as the condominium. While ownership of airspace was possible under common law, modern condominiums are more accurately described as creatures of statute. Although the Florida Condominium Act (FCA) expressly provides for fee simple airspace ownership of condominium property, it had been unclear if the Act could provide for fee simple airspace ownership of non-condominium property. Sterling Breeze v. New Sterling Resorts cleared up that ambiguity and found that the FCA can provide for fee simple ownership of non-condominium airspace. First, this note will review the development of airspace ownership rights as they relate to condominiums within both common law and statutory regimes. Next, this note will explain key provisions of the FCA as well as Florida case law relevant to airspace ownership. This note will then discuss Sterling Breeze v. New Sterling Resorts which tested whether, under the Florida Condominium Act, non-condominium airspace can be owned in fee simple if the non-condominium airspace was described in a condominium declaration. Adopting a contract-based approach that looks to condominium declarations governed by the FCA, the Sterling Breeze court affirmed that non-condominium airspace can be owned in fee simple if that airspace was described in the declaration creating the condominium. This note will then consider potential benefits of the contract-based approach to airspace ownership adopted in Sterling Breeze and briefly discuss the urban planning and land-use benefits that flow from including non-condominium airspace within the FCA's scope. This note concludes with a consideration of how Florida common law may also provide for fee simple airspace ownership outside of the Florida Condominium Act. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthropogenic factors, including the spread of endocrine-disrupting chemicals, have been linked to alterations in the reproductive physiology, morphology, and behavior of wildlife. Few studies of endocrine disruption, however, focus on secondary sexual traits that affect mating signals, despite their importance for reproductive success. The larynx of many anurans (frogs and toads), for example, is larger in males than in females and is crucial for producing mating calls. We aim to determine if wild populations of cane toads (Rhinella marina) near sugarcane fields in Florida have demasculinized larynges when compared to populations near urban areas. We find evidence of demasculinization in both primary and secondary sexual traits in male toads living near sugarcane. Relative to body size, the laryngeal mass, vocal cord length, and dilator muscle width are all reduced in males from sugarcane regions compared to their urban counterparts. Strong correlations between primary and secondary male sexual traits indicate that demasculinization occurs in concert both within and across diverse organs, including the testes, larynx, and skin. Our results show that anurans near sugarcane fields have demasculinized reproductive systems, that this disruption extends to secondary sexual traits like the larynx, and that it is likely due to anthropogenic causes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study contributes to the literature on transit ridership by considering daily boarding and alighting data from a recently launched commuter rail system in Orlando, Florida – SunRail. The analysis is conducted based on daily boarding and alighting data for 10 months for the year 2015. With the availability of repeated observations for every station, the potential impact of common unobserved factors affecting ridership variables are considered. The current study develops an estimation framework, for boarding and alighting separately, that accounts for these unobserved effects at multiple levels – station, station-week and station-day. In addition, the study examines the impact of various observed exogenous factors such as station level, transportation infrastructure, transit infrastructure, land use, built environment, sociodemographic and weather variables on ridership. The model system developed will allow us to predict ridership for existing stations in the future as well as potential ridership for future expansion sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do local policymakers strategically use delay in permitting development to forestall the growth machine? The mantras of smart growth and sustainable development assume local governments can balance the competing values of economic development, ecology, and equity interests in a community. We employ a political market framework to explain differences in local government land use decisions. This framework conceptualizes policy choices as resulting from the interplay between the aggregate policy demand by residents, developers, and environmental interests and the aggregate supply by government authorities. Delays can be imposed strategically through processes of development approval by city governments where industry strength and form of government vary within county‐level service‐delivery fragmentation. We utilize novel Bayesian multilevel modelling of data collected from 2007 and 2015 surveys of Florida city planners and find strong institutional effects and multilevel relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research investigates the use of an Assessment of Ecosystem Services (AES) approach as a planning tool in Florida through the use of an online survey. Target respondents were professionals who had been involved in AES projects. The majority of the respondents perceive an AES approach as a comprehensive and holistic approach that results in better land-use planning decisions. However, AES does not appear to be widely used to guide planning decisions. Despite some challenges, respondents across multiple agencies and institutions in Florida are supportive of using AES in combination with traditional land-use planning tools. More rigorous testing and validation and clarification of guidelines for best practice could improve political and economic support and thereby facilitate the use of AES to guide land-use planning efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We determined reference hydro-climatic and land use/cover sensitivities of stormwater runoff and quality in the Miami River Basin of Florida by developing a dynamic rainfall-runoff model with the EPA Storm Water Management Model. Potential storm runoff in the complex coastal-urban basin exhibited high and notably different seasonal sensitivities to rainfall; with stronger responses in the drier early winter and wetter late summer months. Basin runoff and pollutant loads showed moderate sensitivities to the hydrologic and land cover parameters; imperviousness and roughness exhibited more dominant influence than slope. Sensitivity to potential changes in land use patterns was relatively low. The changes in runoff and pollutants under simultaneous hydro-climatic or climate-land use perturbations were notably different than the summations of their individual contributions. The quantified sensitivities can be useful for appropriate management of stormwater quantity and quality in complex urban basins under a changing climate, land use/cover, and hydrology around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The translocation of phosphorus (P) from terrestrial landscapes to aquatic bodies is of concern due to the impact of elevated P on aquatic system functioning and integrity. Due to their common location in depressions within landscapes, wetlands, including so-called geographically isolated wetlands (GIWs), receive and process entrained P. The ability of depressional wetlands, or GIWs, to sequester P may vary by wetland type or by land use modality. In this study we quantified three measures of P sorption capacities for two common GIW types (i.e., emergent marsh and forested wetlands) in two different land use modalities (i.e., agricultural and least impacted land uses) across 55 sites in Florida, USA. The equilibrium P concentration (EPC) averaged 6.42 ± 5.18 mg P L (standard deviation reported throughout); and ranged from 0.01-27.18 mg P L; there were no differences between GIW type or land use modality, nor interaction effects. Significant differences in phosphorus buffering capacity (PBC) were found between GIW types and land use, but no interaction effects. Forested GIWs [average 306.64 ± 229.63 (mg P kg) (µg P L)], and GIWs in agricultural settings [average 269.95 ± 236.87 (mg P kg) (µg P L)] had the highest PBC values. The maximum sorption capacity (S) was found to only differ by type, with forested wetlands (1274.5 ± 1315.7 mg P kg) having over three times the capacity of emergent GIWs (417.5 ± 534.6 mg P kg). Classification trees suggested GIW soil parameters of bulk density, organic content, and concentrations of total P, HO-extractable P, and HCl-extractable P were important to classifying GIW P-sorption metrics. We conclude that GIWs have high potential to retain P, but that the entrained P may be remobilized to the wetland water column depending on storm and groundwater input P concentrations. The relative hydrologic dis-connectivity of GIWs from other aquatic systems may provide sufficient retention time to retain elevated P within these systems, thereby providing an ecosystem service to downstream waters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction of the Tamiami Trail was an epic feat of engineering and it enabled the development of South Florida. But historical accounts ignore routinely its rival, the Cross State Highway. A study of this rivalry reveals the consequences of the contest for Dixie Highway routes as well as the marginalization of middle-class stakeholders by the corporate landowners who dominated the area and their use of marketing techniques to stage manage this process. This highway competition, against the backdrop of the Land Boom of the 1920s, also documents a shift in identity and power in Southwest Florida. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study analyzes the spatial persistence and temporal patterns in vegetation cover across Florida by utilizing the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) time-series data derived from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer from 1982 to 2006. Specifically, mean-variance analysis and persistence metrics are used to discern the significance of vegetation patterns, the significance of land cover and land-use change, and the relevance of climate variability across time and space. Results demonstrate a consistent, increasing pattern in the mean NDVI and its variance, especially during the late fall and winter season. A possible explanation of this increasing pattern is based on the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, which switched from cold to warm phase after 1995 and is associated with increased winter precipitation. Additionally, the impacts of the El Nino Southern Oscillation can be detected through the decreased spatial variances of NDVI in warm-phase events, compared to cold-phase events, and the more pronounced nature of the pattern in fall/winter. This study proposes a novel set of techniques applied to satellite-derived vegetation data, which effectively discerns fine, statewide vegetation dynamics at appropriate spatial and temporal scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Residents pay into Homeowners Associations (HOAs) to exert greater control over ser-vice provision, their properties and those of their neighbors. HOAs enforce restrictions governing land use within their boundaries, but theory is ambiguous about their impact on public land use. By com-bining two novel data sets on Florida HOAs and municipal regulations, we examine how HOAs affect public land use regimes for 232 cities. We find that the prevalence of HOAs is positively associated with a propensity for regulation, as are newer and bigger HOAs. Also, HOAs are positively associated with land use techniques that direct development through incentives, rather than mandates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multiple hurricanes impacted southeast Florida during 2004 and 2005, producing record rainfall and large-scale stormwater runoff into the urbanized St. Lucie Estuary (SLE). To assess effects on water quality, field samples were taken in June and November 2005 and March 2006 along the SLE's three main segments: the South Fork, connected via the C-44 canal to Lake Okeechobee; the North Fork, which receives residential and agricultural runoff from the C-23 and C-24 canals; and the Middle Estuary, which flows into the Indian River Lagoon and Atlantic Ocean. Salinities were <1%o throughout the normally brackish estuary during the 2005 samplings, but returned to near-normal levels by March 2006 in all but the South Fork. Low salinities in 2005 correlated with low dissolved oxygen, high turbidity, elevated nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations, and high fecal and total coliform counts. Highest turbidity (84.4 NTU), nitrate (37.9 μM), and total dissolved nitrogen (130.8 μM) concentrations occurred in the South Fork, whereas the highest ammonium (15.4 μM), soluble reactive phosphorus (10.5 μM), and total dissolved phosphorus (13.8 μM) concentrations occurred in the North Fork. High fecal and total coliform counts occurred in tidal creeks adjacent to dense residential areas that rely on septic tanks for on-site sewage disposal. The data suggest that increased stormwater retention, minimization of freshwater releases from Lake Okeechobee, and enhanced treatment of both stormwater and sewage are needed to mitigate future stormwater-driven water quality perturbations in the SLE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The extent and change of land cover/land use (LCLU) across the Tampa Bay watershed, Florida, was characterized for the time period between 1996 and 2006. Likewise, the water turbidity trend was determined at a site near the Bay for each of four major tributaries to Tampa Bay (Hillsborough River, the Alafia River, the Little Manatee River, and the Manatee River). This study identifies consistent changes in LCLU across the Tampa Bay watershed and a decrease in water turbidity. LCLU change analysis as a percent of the total Tampa Bay watershed revealed an increase of 2.6% in developed area followed by a 0.9% in bare land and a 0.6% in water cover. A decrease of 1.8% of the total Tampa Bay watershed was found in agriculture, followed in order by 1.1% in wetland and 1.4% in scrub/shrub. Other land classes changed less than 0.2% of the total watershed. A linear mixed model (SAS procedure PROC MIXED) revealed an overall decreasing trend in water turbidity ( p = 0.003, slope estimate = −0.02) across the four major Tampa Bay tributaries considered. This study suggests that development (urbanization) could be associated with decreasing water turbidity in Tampa Bay. Finally, although these results may help explain similar effects on other water bodies with similar conditions of adjacent urbanization and low slope, more analysis are needed considering a larger number of watersheds with similar scales and longer time period in order to confirm that the findings of this study are generally evident. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study assesses the origin and pollution of trace metals in surface soils in a region with contrasting land uses (urban vs. rural). Principal component analysis (PCA) reveals that Cr and Ni are predominantly of geogenic origin. These two trace metals are also the only ones with statistically significant correlations with soil particle size and organic matter content. Copper, Pb and Zn, and possibly Hg, are of anthropogenic origin, but their concentrations rarely reach levels described as strongly polluted by pollution indexes. The concentrations of these anthropogenic trace metals are statistically not different in urban and rural areas, except for Pb that is higher in the urban area. This general lack of a difference between the two land uses indicates that the influence of this small urban area on trace metal concentrations in soils is minor. Lead and Zn have the most, but still a modest number, of strongly polluted sites, mainly in an industrial part of the city. GIS analysis shows that, based on the pollution load index (PLI), overall concentrations of trace metals also reach their highest levels in that industrial area. These observations indicate that the influence of industry on trace metal pollution in soil exceeds that of other urban activities in the region. Local background concentrations were found to be very different from general crustal background concentrations. This demonstrates the importance of the careful selection of a background type in studies like this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Seasonal Kendall Tau test was used to determine statistical significance of mean monthly total phosphorus (TP) and total nitrogen (TN) concentration trends during the time period of 1991-2007, by station and basin at 35 long-term water quality monitoring stations located within the northern Lake Okeechobee watershed. One drainage basin (S-154) had a significant decreasing trend for mean monthly TP concentrations during the analysis period. A significant increase in TN concentrations was detected for four basins during this same time period. The S-154 basin which had the significant decreasing trend for TP also had the highest percentage of implemented Best Management Practices (BMPs) and the most rigorous types of nutrient control projects. These findings emphasize the need for continued implementation of intensive P management strategies. The increasing trend in TN for this watershed signals the need for added focus on reductions of TN in future nutrient source control projects and BMPs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Article takes up the increasingly important land use question of siting for renewable energy. As concern over climate change grows, new policies are being crafted at all levels of government to support renewable energy as a way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. These policies are driving the need to site and construct new power plants that will utilize renewable resources. Historically, power plant siting has been the province of state and local governments, so the regulatory context into which renewables are being integrated varies, sometimes significantly, jurisdiction by jurisdiction. To examine this regulatory context, this Article focuses on Florida, a state which consumes the third-most electricity in the United States but which generates less than 2 percent of that electricity from renewable resources. The Article first provides an overview of Florida's power supply sector and sets out the existing regulatory context for terrestrial siting of energy facilities. It then situates Florida's most promising renewable resources within that context, identifies regulatory barriers that implicate siting, and considers the siting issues unique to each resource. As the article explains, we now have a window of opportunity in which state and local governments can plan for and guide renewable energy siting-an approach that contrasts with utility-driven planning and siting that has long been standard practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The question of what determines plant community composition is fundamental to the study of plant community ecology. We examined the relative roles of historical land use, landscape context, and the biophysical environment as determinants of plant community composition in regenerating citrus groves in north-central Florida. Results were interpreted in light of plant functional traits. Herbaceous and woody plants responded differently to broad-scale variables; herbs correlated most strongly with surrounding land cover at a scale of 8 km, while the only significant determinant of woody species distributions was local land use history. There were significant correlations between herbaceous species and spatial context, habitat isolation, environmental variables, and historical variables. Partial Mantel tests indicated that each variable provided a unique contribution in explaining some of the variation in the herbaceous dataset. The correlation between woody plants and local historical variables remained significant even with other effects corrected for. In the herbaceous community, species composition was linked to functional traits much as expected from classical theory. While spatial influences in our study system are important for both woody and herbaceous plants, the primary determinant of plant community composition in regenerating citrus groves is historical land use. Our results suggest that the fine-scale mechanisms of local competition, tolerance and facilitation invoked by many classical studies may ultimately be less important than land use history in understanding current plant community composition in regenerating agricultural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The large pool of actively cycling carbon (C) held in soils is susceptible to release due to changes in landuse, management, or climate. Yet, the amount and distribution of potentially mineralizable C present in soils of various types and the method by which this soil C fraction can best be quantified, are not well established. The distribution of total organic C (TOC), extractable C pools (hot-water-extractable and acid-hydrolyzable), and in vitro mineralizable C in 138 surface soils across a north Florida watershed was found to be quite heterogeneous. Thus, these C quality parameters could not statistically distinguish the eight landuses or four major soil orders represented. Only wetland and upland forest soils, with the largest and smallest C pool size, respectively, were consistently different from the soils of other landuse types. Variations in potential C mineralization were best explained by TOC (62%) and hot-water-extractable C (59%), whereas acid-hydrolyzable C (32%) and clay content (35%) were generally not adequate indicators of C bioavailability. Within certain landuse and soil orders (Alfisol, Wetland and Rangeland, all with >3% clay content), however, C mineralization and clay content were directly linearly correlated, indicating a possible stimulatory effect of clay on microbial processing of C. Generally, the sandy nature of these surface soils imparted a lack of protection against C mineralization and likely resulted in the lack of landuse/soil order differences in the soil C pools. If a single parameter is to be chosen to quantify the potential for soil C mineralization in southeastern U.S. coastal plain soils, we recommend TOC as the most efficient soil variable to measure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vacant land prices on Florida's barrier islands are examined under four coastal building regulatory regimes. A hedonic pricing model features 1,745 vacant residential land sales from five barrier islands in Lee County between 1980 and 1993. We find that land values decrease in response to the county's participation in the National Flood Insurance Program, the establishment of a Coastal Building Zone, and following the reestablishmemt of the Coastal Construction Control Line. The findings suggest that benefits of safety from increased building standards are outweighed by the additional costs of compliance brought about by the code changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Landscape Development Intensity index (LDI), which is based on non-renewable energy use and integrates diverse land use activities, was compared to other measures of LU (e.g., %agriculture, %urban) to determine its ability for predicting benthic diatom composition in freshwater marshes of peninsular Florida. In this study, 70 small, isolated herbaceous marshes located along a human disturbance gradient (generally agricultural) throughout peninsular Florida were sampled for benthic diatoms and soil and water physical/chemical parameters (i.e., TP, TKN, pH, specific conductance, etc.). Landscape measures of percent agriculture, percent urban, percent natural, and LDI index values were calculated for a 100 m buffer around each site. The strongest relationships using Mantel's r statistic, which ranges from −1 to 1, were found between benthic diatom composition, the combined soil and water variables, and LDI scores ( r=0.51, P<0.0001). Although similar, soil and water variables alone ( r=0.45, P<0.0001) or with percent agriculture or percent natural were not as strongly correlated (both Mantel's r=0.46, P<0.0001). Little urban land use was found in the areas surrounding the study wetlands. Diatom data were clustered using flexible beta into 2 groups, and stepwise discriminant analysis identified specific conductance, followed by LDI score, soil pH, water total phosphorus, and ammonia, as cluster-separating variables. The LDI explained slightly more of the variation in species composition than either percent agriculture or percent natural, perhaps because the LDI can combine disparate land uses into a single quantitative value. However, the ecological significance of the difference between land use metrics and diatom composition is controvertible, and additional tests including more varied land uses appear warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores Florida law involving concealment or nondisclosure and misrepresentation of matters that may be found in the public records. Florida's growth is accompanied with litigation that accuses developers, sellers, and brokers of unlawfully failing to disclose, concealing and misrepresenting matters significantly affecting residential real property.

The degradation of world‐wide estuarine ecosystems as a result of accelerated human population growth accompanied by agricultural, industrial and urban development justifies a strong need to find efficient ways to manage and protect these sensitive environments. Starting from 2001, the authors have been involved in an interdisciplinary research project aiming to develop environmental indicators for integrated estuarine ecosystem assessment in the Gulf of Mexico. As part of this project, a study was conducted to characterize land‐use and land‐cover changes with the Pensacola estuarine drainage area as a case. The Pensacola bay was targeted because it is one of few exemplary large river‐driven estuarine systems across the northern Gulf of Mexico. The study had two major sections. The first part was dedicated to the development of an improved method for coastal land‐use and land‐cover mapping, which was built upon hierarchical classification and spatial reclassification. An image scene was separated into urban and rural regions early in the classification, with a ‘mask’ defined by road intersection density slices combined with road buffers. Each part was classified independently in its most effective context and, later, both were merged to form a complete map. In spatial reclassification, image interpretation procedures, auxiliary vector data and a variety of Geographical Information System (GIS) functions were synthesized to resolve spectral confusion and improve mapping accuracy. This method was used to map land use and land cover from Landsat Thematic Mapper/Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (TM/ETM+) imagery for 1989, 1996 and 2002, respectively. The accuracy assessment shows that the overall classification errors were less than 10%. The second part focused on the analysis of the spatio‐temporal dynamics of estuarine land‐use and land‐cover changes by using post‐classification comparison and GIS overlay techniques. The project has revealed that a substantial growth of low‐density urban land occurred in the lower drainage basin in connection with population and housing growth, as well as a significant increase of mixed forest land in the upper watershed as a result of active logging and harvesting operations. These growths were achieved at the cost of evergreen forest and wetlands, thus compromising safeguards for water quality, biodiversity of aquatic systems, habitat structure and watershed health in the Pensacola estuarine drainage area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nitrate levels in the Ocklawaha River Basin in north central Florida were reviewed over a 50-year period. Data were obtained from the literature, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) STOrage and RETrieval (STORET), and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) databases. The study objective was to determine whether nitrate concentrations are increasing and if so, whether this increase is linked to land use changes. Increasing nitrate levels were seen at 5 of the 14 stations, while other stations showed no trend or a decreasing trend. Median nitrate concentrations in the Ocklawaha River increased from 0.07 mg-N/L to 0.78 mg-N/L at sites downstream from the Silver River. Throughout the Rodman Reservoir, median nitrate concentrations decreased from 0.48 mg-N/L to 0.01 mg-N/L and increased to 0.04 mg-N/L after the Kirkpatrick Dam. Flow and concentration relationships were correlated for five stations. At four of the five stations nitrate concentrations decreased in response to increasing flow, likely the result of dilution with nitrate poor water. Changes in land use over a 20-year period (1970 to 1990) also were monitored. Sources of nitrate have been linked by isotopic analysis to organic and inorganic fertilizers, which appear to be related to increased urbanization and an increase in lawns that require nutrient fertilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Provides information on a study that examined motivation to use scientific information about threatened and endangered species for planning and regulation using a survey based on the theory of planned behavior administered to land-use decision makers in south Florida. Methodology of the study; Results and discussion on the study.