© 2025 Central Florida Public Media. All Rights Reserved.
90.7 FM Orlando • 89.5 FM Ocala
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

New tool demystifies nature, development data in Osceola County

At Kissimmee Lakefront Park, green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) like retention basins, native plants and trees help reduce stormwater runoff and protect Lake Tohopekaliga’s water quality.
Jovana Radovanovic
/
The Nature Conservancy
At Kissimmee Lakefront Park, green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) like retention basins, native plants and trees help reduce stormwater runoff and protect Lake Tohopekaliga’s water quality.

A new, interactive online tool from The Nature Conservancy in Florida helps users understand the state of Osceola County’s natural resources and analyze potential development impacts, through layers of public data the conservation group compiled from many sources and synthesized into a more digestible format.

The Osceola Greenprint tool can help government planners, nonprofit community groups and developers make more sustainable land use decisions as the region continues to grow, according to Christianah Oyenuga, Sustainable Cities Manager with The Nature Conservancy in Florida.

Over the next few years, Florida’s population will likely grow by some 870 new residents a day, according to the Demographic Estimating Conference.

“As we think about the rapid growth and development happening in Florida, we know our natural resources are being tested to the limits,” Oyenuga said. “[The Osceola Greenprint] is a roadmap to smart growth.”

At Kissimmee Lakefront Park, green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) like retention basins, native plants and trees help reduce stormwater runoff and protect Lake Tohopekaliga’s water quality.
Tyler Jones
/
The Nature Conservancy
At Kissimmee Lakefront Park, green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) like retention basins, native plants and trees help reduce stormwater runoff and protect Lake Tohopekaliga’s water quality.

Built from existing, public data pulled from different local, state and federal agencies, the Osceola Greenprint tool is designed to help make the data less overwhelming for a general user to explore.

“It's easily digestible for all types of users with different types of technical abilities,” Oyenuga said.

The goal is to help Osceola residents better understand how the county’s natural resources and built environment interact, as well as identify and analyze potential environmental impacts from development. For example, users can use the tool to locate the county’s floodplains — and where floodplains coincide with impervious (paved-over) surfaces, which don’t absorb excess water.

Most of Osceola County coincides with “500-year floodplain,” according to the Greenprint tool. That’s a term hydrologists have come to regret, as it tends to be misleading; in reality, the 500-year floodplain is not a measure of time but statistical probability, showing where a certain flood is .2 percent likely to happen, on average, within a given year.

RELATED: Decades-old maps don’t fully capture Central Florida’s flooding risk

Unlike other parts of Central Florida, much of Osceola County remains undeveloped, with natural and working agricultural lands making up much of the 500-year floodplain. But the tool shows there are dense concentrations of impervious surfaces in northwest Osceola, near Kissimmee and Poinciana.

Just west of Lake Tohopekaliga, some of those paved surfaces intersect with the 100-year floodplain: where flooding of a certain size is 1% likely, on average, within a given year.

“The northwest quadrant of the county could potentially see massive flooding, compared to other parts of the county. That's just one way to digest and understand and communicate this data,” Oyenuga said.

Turning the tool’s other layers on and off reveals a wealth of additional information users can explore: like where parts of the Florida Wildlife Corridor fall within Osceola County; where more development is currently planned; and low- to moderate-income communities that might face extra environmental challenges.

“Inequities in access to affordable, clean water; inequities in access to blue spaces and green spaces,” are being exacerbated as the region rapidly grows, Oyenuga said. The tool can help identify which communities are most impacted by environmental pressures, and guide opportunities to meet their needs, she said.

Osceola Greenprint follows The Nature Conservancy of Florida’s earlier release of another, similar tool, the EcoUrban Assessment Resource ("EcoResource") of Orange County. So far, that tool has proven to be useful for Orange County’s Environmental Protection Division, environmental nonprofits and community groups, according to TNC.

The TNC’s new tool for Osceola County, where about 57% of residents are Hispanic, is available in both English and Spanish. The conservation group tentatively plans on updating Osceola Greenprint’s data once a year.

Molly is an award-winning reporter with a background in video production and investigative journalism, focused on covering environmental issues for Central Florida Public Media.
Related Content