This is a project that was initiated while I was employed by the South Florida Water Management District. I am currently developing it as my thesis, which I will defend in mid-February.
Future Land Use Maps (FLUMs) are a manifestation of a community’s vision for the future development of an area, and are mandated by Chapter 163.3177, Florida Statutes. The South Florida Water Management District (District) has assembled and compiled the FLUMs for over 85 cities and all 16 counties from among the 154 local governments within its jurisdiction. The District has assembled this data to better coordinate with local governments and enhance their ability to integrate land use and water resource planning. The FLUMs have also been standardized to the District Generalized Future Land Use Categories methodology, which facilitates comparisons across political boundaries. This map will be used to identify large-scale trends in future land use that span municipal boundaries. It can also be used to identify potential “hot spots” or areas for further investigation where development may impact ecosystem restoration, water supply, water quality, flood control and natural systems. These areas may benefit from future policy and planning assistance and can help focus utilization of limited resources.
Additionally, using data from each local government FLUM within a county, a population projection can be extrapolated using a full build-out scenario. Mixed use and residential future land use categories are projected by multiplying land use density maximums by acreage for each category, using people per dwelling unit as determined by the U.S. Census Bureau. This is important because most population projections do not derive from or account for future land use. These FLUM population projections are then compared to the University of Florida Bureau of Economic and Business Research (BEBR) population projections for each county. BEBR population projections are an accepted standard that local governments use to develop their future land use demand when creating FLUMs.
