Ground Truth Studies Teacher Handbook - Aspen Global Change ...

Handbook Cover
Turkey Point and the Everglades, Florida
(image source: ERIM )
Description
The striking image on the front and back cover of this
Handbook is a Landsat image showing the Turkey Point
area, south of Miami, and a portion of the Everglades.
The scene was recorded by an electronic sensor known as
the Thematic Mapper (TM) on board Landsat 5, at an
altitude of 700 km (435 miles), with a resolution of 30
meters (98 feet). Note the difference in resolution
between this Landsat TM image and the Landsat MSS
image of the San Francisco Bay area.
Exploring the Image
Use this image with your students to explore an area very
different from that of the San Francisco Bay area. Ask
them to use the skills they have developed to interpret
this striking image. What conclusions can they draw
about the nature of city development and natural systems
in this area? What would be the consequences of a
radiation leak at the Turkey Point nuclear power plant to
the residents of the area? What effect will further road
building and development have on the Everglades? What
effect would rising sea levels, associated with global
warming, have on these communities?
This area of Florida encompasses climates, vegetative
habitats, and economic pursuits not found elsewhere in
the continental United States. Most of the land surface is
at or near sea level, reflecting its youthful age in terms of
its emergence from the seas that once covered all of
mainland Florida.
This image contains a number of interesting natural and
artificial features for your students to examine. In the
Everglades, for example, vast expanses of sawgrass (the
darker colored areas) are interspersed with hammocks
(“tree islands”) - slightly higher land covered with
hardwood trees. The splotches of intense red occurring in
long, arcing patterns represent the hammocks and show the
natural flow of water through the Everglades. Mangrove
swamps are confined to the coastal areas and show up
brilliant red against the dark blue of the ocean waters.
Note, too, the light blue streaks that delineate the great
coral reef that is part of the Florida Keys. Key Largo is the
red island off the coast.
The image clearly shows how humans are encroaching on
the Everglades: the many dark blue inland areas, surrounded
by white, are gravel pits which provide landfill
and construction materials for new developments. The
regular patchwork of red, gray and white is the development
of new areas south of Miami. The grid of canals
forming the cooling system for the Turkey Point nuclear
power plant on Biscayne Bay is strikingly apparent, as are
the runways of Homestead Air Force Base to its northwest.
© ASPEN GLOBAL CHANGE INSTITUTE 1995 GROUND TRUTH STUDIES
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