Florida Land Use and Land Cover Change in the Past 100 Years

This chapter provides an overview of land use and land cover change in Florida over the past 100 years and a summary of how it may change in the future. We begin by providing a baseline description of Florida’s pre-1900 land cover, natural resource distribution, and biodiversity. This is followed by a description of major land use changes and trends related to transportation, agriculture, mining, urbanization, tourism, disruption of natural processes, and conservation from 1900 to the present. We also describe changes in land use and land cover caused by climate change. The chapter concludes with a discussion of current land use and land cover patterns, and the potential impacts of climate change and continued human population growth on the remaining natural and rural landscapes in Florida. Much has changed in Florida over the last century due to a combination of wetland draining, agriculture conversion, urban development, and establishment of several dominant exotic plant species, as well as accelerating sea level rise and shifting climate zones due to climate change.