Summary of Key Results:

A macro-overview demonstrates the extent of coverage of the 1995 CIR photo compared to the 2002 photo. It also gives a better sense of the overall topography & habitat surrounding the property. Again, with the intention of providing geographic context for the aerial photographs in use, this overlay of the georeferenced 1950 photograph and the CIR shows a more northerly extent of the overall environment, suggesting the prevalence of waterways, intermittent and permanent.

In 1950, the pond was connected with a larger pond to the east. The other ponds in the area appear to be relatively stable by comparison. By 1995, the sinkhole-pond has detached from the larger pond and clear evidence of seasonal shrinkage is visible around the edges creating what appear to be concentric circles, indicating the dried pond vegetation surrounding the areas that have been evaporated. In 2002 the pond is nearly completely dry, as is the neighboring larger pond. The surrounding ponds have also suffered similar shrinkage, suggesting that the whole complex of waterways are seasonally intermittent because of the underlying Karst topography & prevalence of sinkholes.

Conclusions:

The three case studies presented, from 1950, 1995, 2002, show a demonstrable shrinkage in the pond. In 1950, the pond was part of a large waterway system, connecting to a larger pond. However, by the mid-1990s, the pond has detached from the large pond. This pond has been groundproofed annually from 1999 to 2022, and although it is currently at a much higher volume than in 2002, the data from the three aerial photographs suggests that the overall trend is for shrinkage and that the 2002 nearly dried out state of the sinkhole indicates that it is not a permanently navigable waterway and therefore not under the riparian rights statutes of Florida.