Home Introduction Physical Setting Urbanization Natural Hazards Mineral Resources Water System Environmental Quality Outdoor Recreation Everglades N.P. Coastal Zone Fish & Wildlife Miccosukee Indians Conclusion References

South Dade County is an area of intense environmental pressures, both internal and external. Here urbanization is replacing farming and pressing against the east boundary of Everglades National Park. Development has changed some of the estuarine areas from a mangrove swamp habitat to bulkheaded developments. The problems of water supply and waste disposal-particularly sewage-are inextricably linked to the regional water system that extends as far north as Lake Okeechobee. The environment of the south Dade area is totally water dependent.

Because south Florida is so flat, many of the normal engineering approaches cannot be used to solve water and related environmental problems. Water cannot be stored in reservoirs and moved readily. Water management, rather, has had to accommodate to the flatness of the area and its proximity to sea level. Moreover, the manipulation of the water system for the benefit of people could not be inimical to the balanced ecology of plants and animals. Much detailed data had to be collected before management schemes could be formulated and alternatives evaluated. The available data upon which the water management plans for south Florida are based have been collected over a period of many years. Natural resources data have been analyzed and correlated with other social, economic, and demographic data in development of these water management plans. Yet further stresses will require continual improvement in the water management plans. This in turn will require even more detailed resources data.

Planning in the south Dade area is predicated on available water. Hence this document has stressed the water management which has provided well for the past growth and aims at accommodating future planned growth. So complex and intertwined are the resources and the needs that detailed information is essential to sound planning. In this study, we have presented generalized data embracing the climate, topography, hydrology, pedology, biology, and geology of the area. Detailed data, which have been generalized for this study, are available to the planner.

Development of both regional plans and the management alternatives to implement these plans will become increasingly complex as environmental stresses increase with further development. Moreover, environmental problems develop faster than the information needed to address them is normally collected. Modelling of the environment, including social, economic and political constraints, will likely offer a means of evaluating the complex interactions of alternative plans. This modelling will require continual input and refinement of data. Although a veritable wealth of data on the natural resources of the area now exists, the sophisticated approaches of future planning, especially through modelling, will likely require both new types of data and greater detail of existing data.

Many organizations, both governmental and private, are concerned about the environment of south Florida. The Department of the Interior shares this concern. Land-use planning, based on realistic objectives and sound resource and environmental data, can accommodate growth commensurate with environmental protection.

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