September 2025

They say knowledge is power, and if you live in one of the 16 counties within the SFWMD then it’s never been easier to know all there is to know about things like how much rain has fallen in your community, the water level in canals, lakes and waterways and whether water control structures like coastal gates are open or closed.

All this and more is at your fingertips thanks to the launch of the DBHydro Insights application, an interactive app presenting current and historical data on everything from water quality to meteorological data. Click on an interactive map and you can search for the info you need before downloading quickly and simply, thanks to an upgrade of the existing app. You can even create and share customizable charts and interactive graphs, making this the first and best option for anyone with more than a passing interest in the state of South Florida’s water provision.

Put yourself in the position of Heather O’Leary, professor of anthropology at St Petersburg’s University of South Florida (USF) for a moment, and imagine you want to make as many people as possible aware of the fact that the oyster population of Florida has suffered a ‘catastrophic’ decline. Do you write a strongly worded press release? Perhaps put together a statistic-packed white paper? Maybe go with a PowerPoint presentation…?

What the professor did was liaise with student composers and staff from the university music department to create Oysters Ain’t Safe, a soft jazz evocation of the plight of the oysters. The data on issues such as over-harvesting, the climate emergency, chemical pollution and habitat loss was turned into music in an attempt to reach out and create what the professor calls ‘a sense……..of radical optimism’. The jazz in question will be played live at the next USF concert in January 2026.

This story underlines the importance of seagrass, focusing on the three state-of-the-art research centers that the Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium in Sarasota has opened dedicated to the restoration, resilience, and sustainability of Florida’s seagrass.

The move is a response to the fact that the seagrass meadows around Florida are currently disappearing at an extremely worrying rate, caused by a combination of dredging, runoff, worsening water quality and the impact of climate change. The research centers will be at the forefront of the development of a 10-year ‘Seagrass Restoration Plan’, ultimately aimed at developing types of seagrass able to cope with the changing environment. One of the most exciting developments being pursued by the center is research into the role seagrass can play in carbon capture, with a long term aim being the development of a revenue stream for the center from carbon offsets.

Understanding the ultimate sources of the water upon which Floridians rely for irrigation purposes helps to develop a clear focus on using that water in the most sustainable manner possible. We’ve previously considered whether it's possible to both irrigate effectively and responsibly. We've also looked at how irrigation systems for today and the future must enable sustainable irrigation practices. In this article we’ll look at the water itself, at where it comes from and where and how it returns to source, and at the steps above and beyond the mechanics of an irrigation system that people can take to protect and preserve this most precious of resources.

We enjoy bringing you positive news but we do have to flag up when things are going badly wrong, because admitting problems is the first step toward solving them, and this story is about things going very wrong indeed. It concerns Lake Okeechobee, the largest freshwater lake in Florida, and the fact that it has been ranked in a new study as the dirtiest lake in the country. This unfortunate ranking was published on Lake.com which evaluated 100 of the largest lakes in the US via recent chemical data, and found that Lake Okeechobee contained high levels of lead and phosphorous.

A local fisherman interviewed for the story declared himself unsurprised by the findings, pointing out that conditions in the lake had deteriorated rapidly over the years, describing them in the following terms: “There’s an area called the Pass where you go through that used to be full of lily pads and pepper grass, all native grass and crystal clear and in good shape. Now it’s just a big bowl.”.

Here in Florida we’re just emerging from one of the worst droughts on record, and the good news is that the scale of the problem seems to be prompting positive actions. This story is about a 20 year plan published by the Central Florida Water Initiative, which covers Orange, Osceola, Polk, Seminole, and parts of Lake County.  The background to these efforts is a projected 40% growth in population from 3.4 million in 2020 to 4.7 million by 2045. Currently, fresh groundwater availability is an estimated 760 million gallons per day, but demand is expected to grow to 856 million gallons per day, and the initiative aims to tackle this using techniques like wastewater treatment to curb the demand placed on the Florida aquifer. It’s a circular approach to water use which is called the One Water approach and it represents a positive approach to the issue of water shortages.