File:Florida (MODIS 2017-05-29).jpg

English: Southern Florida brings to mind sunshine, citrus, beautiful beaches, and the dark swamplands of the Everglades. All of this – plus year-round tropical weather – has made the region a haven for sun-seekers who want to live, work, and play in this region. And lots of them. According to an article published in March 2016 by the Miami Herald, the Miami-Dade/Broward/Palm Beach metropolitan area had become the eighth most populated in the nation, surpassing six million people in that one metro area alone.

One May 26, 2017, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a true-color image of southern Florida. In this image, blue represents water, vegetation appears green, non-vegetated land appears tan, and sediment in water appears in jewel-tone blues and greens. In addition to these “natural” colors, the presence of man-made structures, roads, and cities are marked by gray pixels.

The topography of Florida is low and flat, with a gentle slope downward from the north to the south and from the center to the coast. A north-south linear formation in the center of the state is the Lake Wales Ridge. At about 197 feet (60 meters) above sea level, it is the highest point in South Florida. The roughly round lake to the southeast of the Ridge is Lake Okeechobee. From Lake Okeechobee southward, the land lies mostly below 33 feet (10 meters). Near both coasts and in much of the Everglades the land lies less than 5 meters (16 feet) above sea level.

The Everglades are a wet sawgrass prairie that extends from southern Lake Okeechobee to the tip of Florida. Although the increasing competition for water by human needs and agriculture have impacted the Everglades heavily, shrinking their size by nearly one-half, the remaining wetlands are preserved and nearly void of habitation. Because they are richly vegetated, they appear dark green. Agricultural lands lie north of the Everglades, especially inland. They appear lighter green.

Human habitation and structures are abundant in southern Florida, especially along the coastal areas. The Miami-Dade/Broward/Palm Beach metro area stretches along the southeastern tip of Florida. Other cities along the Atlantic coast include Port St. Lucie, Fort Pierce, Vero Beach, Melbourne and Cocoa Beach. Cape Canaveral and the Canaveral National Seashore jut from the mainland into the Atlantic. Along the Gulf of Mexico the major cities, from north to south, are Clearwater/Largo/Saint Petersburg, Port Charlotte, Fort Myers, and Naples. It should be noted that all of the cities lying along the coast are situated 33 feet (10 meters) above sea level or less – and are thus at significant risk for encroachment of rising waters in a warming world.