CReST St Lucie County v01

The Conservation and Restoration Screening Tool (CReST) enables users to efficiently prioritize among or gain insight into potential locations for restoration and conservation of wetlands and other hydrological features. Users design queries based on one or more dataset fields that include water quality considerations—such as drainage density, historic wetland loss, and wetland presence—and land management factors, including distance to existing conservation lands and likelihood of new development. The CReST_StLucieCo_v01 study area is the mainland portion of St Lucie County, FL, USA. The unit of analysis is the grid cell (attribute table row). Grid cells are generally 1km2, except along study area borders. Eight of the attribute table fields (columns) correspond to analyses conducted or assessed at the scale of a grid cell. Following each analysis, the grid cells were sorted (e.g., from high to low). The sorted set of grid cells was divided into categories (generally 5 quintiles) using the quantile tool in ArcGIS Pro 3.x. The name of the quintile (attribute) reflects the rank of that quintile and can be used to query the full dataset. For example, by selecting the grid cells assigned the attribute “Most” in the Wetland_Lake_Presence field, only the quintile of grid cells containing the most wetland and lake area will be selected. By selecting “More” in addition to “Most”, the grid cells in the upper two quintiles will be selected. Link to Interactive CReST St Lucie County v01 Application Citation Rains Kai C., Guerron-Orejuela, Edgar, O’Donnell, Bethany, Rains, Mark (2026) CReST St. Lucie Co Conservation and Restoration Screening Tool for mainland St Lucie County, Florida, USA Version 1 Dataset Contact Dr. Kai Rains | University of South Florida Ecohydrology Research Group | [e-mail] Filter Definitions and Development Details Wetland_Lake_Presence: The relative quantity, as compared to all grid cells, of wetland and lake area in a grid cell The primary source data for wetland and lake area was the Land Use Land Cover 2017-2019 (South Florida Water Management District). Grid cells were ordered by the percentage of grid cell area occupied by wetlands and lakes and divided into five categories, “quintiles”, using the quantile tool in ArcGIS Pro 3.x. The ranges of values corresponding to each quintile: Least = 0.0 %; Less = 0.1–3.0 %; Medium = 3.1–7.4 %; More = 7.5–17.5 %; Most = 17.6–96.6 %. Wetland_Lake_Loss: The relative quantity, as compared to all grid cells, of wetland and lake area in a grid cell in the 1940s that has been converted to another landcover type. To determine the historical locations of wetland and lakes, the USF Ecohydrology Research Group manually digitized target feature boundaries from aerial imagery (1940s) and other reference datasets using protocols described in Rains et al. (2025). The current locations of wetlands and lakes (LULC SFWMD 2017-2019) were removed from the 1940s dataset, “Wetland and Lake 1940s Layer”, to create a dataset depicting wetland and lake loss since the 1940s, “Wetland and Lake Loss Layer”. Grid cells were intersected with the Wetland and Lake 1940s Layer to identify all grid cells that did not contain wetlands or lakes in the 1940s. Those grid cells were categorized as “N/A (1940s None Mapped)”. The remaining grid cells were ordered by the percentage of grid cell area intersected by the Wetland and Lake Loss Layer and divided into five categories, “quintiles”, using the quantile tool in ArcGIS Pro 3.x. The ranges of values corresponding to each quintile: Most Loss = 83.7–100 %; More Loss = 61.2–83.6 %; Medium Loss = 43.4–61.1 %; Less Loss = 23.2–43.3 %; Least Loss = 0.1–23.1%. Wetland_Lake_Condition: The relative condition, as compared to all grid cells, of the area within 100 m of contemporary wetlands and lakes in a grid cell. The primary sources datasets are 1) the Landscape Development Index (LDI) vector dataset (FGIO 2023) based on Land Use Land Cover (SFWMD 2017-2019) rasterized to 1m2 “LDI cells” and 2) wetland and lake features derived from Land Use Land Cover (SFWMD 2017-2019). Grid cells that did not contain wetlands or lakes (SFWMD 2017-2019) were categorized as N/A (No Wetlands/Lakes). The remaining grid cells were ordered by the average Landscape Development Intensity value of the LDI cells included within and extending up to 100 m from wetlands and lakes. These grid cells were divided into five categories, “quintiles”, using the quantile tool in ArcGIS Pro 3.x. The ranges of average LDI values corresponding to each quintile: Most Impacted = 4.2 – 8.1; More Impacted = 3.2 – 4.1; Medium Impacted = 2.7 – 3.1; Less impacted = 2.1 – 2.6; Least Impacted = 1.0 – 2.0. Landscape_Condition: The relative condition, as compared to all grid cells, of the landscape within a grid cell. This metric is based on the Landscape Development Index (LDI) vector dataset (FGIO) rasterized to 1m2 “LDI cells” reflective of land cover depicted in the Land Use Land Cover (SFWMD 2017-2019) dataset. A grid cell LDI value was calculated by determining the average LDI value of LDI cells contained within grid cells. Grid cells were ordered by grid cell LDI value and divided into five categories, “quintiles”, using the quantile tool in ArcGIS Pro 3.x. The ranges of values corresponding to each quintile: Most Impacted = 5.6 – 8.3; More Impacted = 4.1 –5.5; Medium Impacted = 3.5 – 4.0; Less Impacted = 2.8 – 3.4; Least Impacted = 1.0 – 2.7. Conservation_Lands: The relative distance, as compared to all grid cells, from a grid cell to lands currently in conservation. Conservation lands include those contained in the following datasets (2023): FLSOLARIS_CLEAR Conservation Easements, Conservation Owned Lands (FDEP); Florida Conservation Lands (flma) (9/2023, FNAI), Florida Forever Board of Trustees Projects (8/2023, FNAI) and Acquisitions plus ARPA (4/2023, FNAI). To determine the distance between each grid cell and conservation lands, the study area was first subdivided into squares (1m2). The distance value assigned to each grid cell is the mean value of the distance between midpoints of squares contained within the grid cell and the closest border of a conservation land. Grid cells were ordered by distance value and divided into five categories, “quintiles”, using the quantile tool in ArcGIS Pro 3.x. The ranges of values corresponding to each quintile: Farthest = 3.6 – 7.8km; Far = 2.4 – 3.5km; Medium = 1.4 – 2.3km; Near = 0.5 – 1.3km; Nearest = 0.0 – 0.4km. Channel_Density: The relative density, as compared to all grid cells, of natural or artificial channels in a grid cell. To determine channel length, USF Ecohydrology Research Group created a Channel Dataset based primarily on flowlines from the National Hydrography dataset (USGS 2023), but including unique features from four additional datasets as described in Rains et al. (2025). A brief description follows: Unique polylines present in the North St Lucie River Water Control District dataset (acquired from the St Lucie County ERD 2024) and polylines manually digitized as inferred from the Aquatic Spray Location Dataset (acquired from the St Lucie County ERD 2024) were added to the NHD. In addition, unique polylines depicting roads (USGS 2023, FDOT 2023) were added to the dataset to account for roadside ditches and storm water systems. The Channel Dataset overall accuracy is 94%, error of omission 15% (field review, 45 locations). Grid cells were ordered by channel density, where channel density is the length (km) of channels (channel dataset) in a grid cell divided by the area (km2) of the grid cell, and divided into five categories, “quintiles”, using the quantile tool in ArcGIS Pro 3.x. The ranges of values corresponding to each Channel Density quintile: Highest Density = 12.0 – 44.0; Higher Density = 8.2 – 11.9; Medium Density = 6.3 – 8.1; Lower Density = 4.3 – 6.2; Lowest Density = 0.0 – 4.2. New_Development_2040: The extent of new development expected to occur in the grid cell, relative to all grid cells, prior to 2040. Grid cells were ordered by the percentage of area predicted to undergo new development and divided into five categories, “quintiles”, using the quantile tool in ArcGIS Pro 3.x. The source dataset used to map the location and extent of development prior to 2040 is the Sprawl Scenario (1000 Friends of FL, UF GeoPlan 2023). The ranges of values corresponding to each quintile: Most Development = 77.0 – 100%; More Development = 31.1 – 76.9%; Medium Development = 8.4 – 31.0 %; Less Development = 0.1 – 8.3 %; Least Development = 0.0 %. New_Development_2040_2070: The extent of new development expected to occur in the grid cell, relative to all grid cells, between 2040 and 2070. Grid cells were ordered by the percentage of area predicted to undergo new development and divided into five categories, “quintiles”, using the quantile tool in ArcGIS Pro 3.x. The source datasets used to determine the location of development expected to occur between 2040 and 2070 were the 2040 and 2070 Sprawl Scenario datasets (1000 Friends of FL, UF GeoPlan 2023). The ranges of values corresponding to each quintile: Most Development = 71.8 – 99.0 %; More Development = 43.1 – 71.7%; Medium Development = 8.3 – 43.0 %; Less Development = 0.1 – 8.2 %; Least Development = 0.0 %.