Evaluation and Delineation
Florida Department of Environmental Protection, has the
responsibility to perform Formal Wetland
Delineations, provide training in wetland delineation and classification,
provide technical assistance to other programs of the Department, and ensure the
consistent statewide use of the Florida Unified Wetland Delineation Methodology
(Chapter 62-340, F.A.C.).
What is a
Because the term
wetland can mean different things to different people, it is necessary to have a technical
definition to standardize the concept.
Florida Wetlands are defined as:
those areas that
are inundated or saturated by surface water or ground water at a frequency and a duration
sufficient to support, and under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of
vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soils. Soils present in wetlands
generally are classified as hydric or alluvial, or possess characteristics that are
associated with reducing soil conditions.
The prevalent vegetation in wetlands generally
consists of facultative or obligate hydrophytic macrophytes that are typically adapted to
areas having soil conditions described above. These species, due to morphological,
physiological, or reproductive adaptations, have the ability to grow, reproduce or persist
in aquatic environments or anaerobic soil conditions. Florida wetlands generally include
swamps, marshes, bayheads, bogs, cypress domes and strands, sloughs, wet prairies,
riverine swamps and marshes, hydric seepage slopes, tidal marshes, mangrove swamps and
other similar areas. Florida wetlands generally do not include longleaf or slash pine
flatwoods with an understory dominated by saw palmetto.
However, just as the general term wetland has been
subject to varying opinions so have some of the concepts of the definition. To further
clarify and standardize the intent of the definition, a methodology for identifying and
delineating wetlands is provided in