Tampa Bay Integrated Science Pilot Study:

Baseline mapping, land surface dynamics and predictive modeling, and hazards vulnerability studies

Summary

• The seamless DEM produced for a portion of the Tampa Bay region is available for use by other scientists at a resolution of 10 meters or 30 meters. Slope and hill-shading products have been generated from these files. The DEM data set will be expanded to cover the entire drainage basin of Tampa Bay.
  
  
• Land cover data sets have been created for the Tampa Bay drainage basin for the 1972, 1988, 1992, and 1995 timeframes. These and the other input data sets have been processed and prepared for use in initial runs of the SLEUTH Model. Data sets for the 1950’s, 1960’s, and 2000 will be produced in the future to improve the accuracy of SLEUTH predictions to the year 2050.
  
  
• Initial runs of the SLEUTH Model will focus on urban land growth. Later applications will model the temporal dynamics of seven land cover classes.
  
  
• South Florida has an extensive history of hurricane activity prior to the rapid growth of the past several decades. The majority of people living in the Tampa Bay region have never experienced a hurricane, and don’t realize how extremely vulnerable the region is because of its low-lying topography.
  
  
• Coastal development patterns continue on barrier islands and along the coastline of the greater Tampa Bay region, placing the population and built environment at risk.