Florida--Population--Statistics

Protecting Natural Resources, such as drinking water in terms of quality and quantity, is one of the missions of South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD). Water Supply Planning is one of the many projects at the Planning Department of the SFWMD, in which sixteen counties are analyzed to determine the most accurate population distribution for water supply distribution among the water utility companies. This thesis examines the current methodology which is used at the SFWMD, and addresses its shortcomings. It then introduces a proposed methodology, to improve population distribution analysis, by incorporating satellite imagery. Textural classification of satellite imagery will be used to extract residential neighborhoods from non-residential areas. The resultant residential areas, which is in the form of raster data, then will be converted to a vector coverage to be utilized as an additional source of data. Incorporating satellite imagery eliminates the assumption of homogenous population distribution, which the current methodology is based on and consequently, leads to a more accurate population distribution methodology.

Florida's population growth has been spatially and temporally uneven. Significant growth occurred in different regions of the state during certain periods of time. This differential growth was a result of specific socioeconomic conditions that varied both temporally and spatially. Florida was granted statehood 1845 and served as the southern extension of the plantation system. Growth was high in the northern regions of Florida during the antebellum years. After reconstruction, railroad infrastructure was developed that connected the distant reaches of the state with each other and the rest of the country. This facilitated the growth of the central regions of the peninsula. The construction of roads and the popularity of the automobile brought settlers and land developers to the southern regions of Florida in the early twentieth century. After a growth slump during the Depression, activities of World War II once again stimulated growth in the state, especially in the southeastern peninsula. The recent phenomenon of elderly migration has shifted growth to the less populated areas of the southwestern peninsula.