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watersheds and coastal waters > kissimmee- okeechobee-
everglades watershed Watersheds and Coastal WatersKissimmee-
Okeechobee- Everglades Watershed The Kissimmee- Okeechobee-
Everglades watershed, an area of about 9,000 mi2, once extended
as a single hydrologic unit from present-day Orlando to Florida
Bay, about 250 mi to the south (fig. 17). In the northern half
of the watershed, the Kissimmee River and other tributaries
drained slowly through large areas of wetlands into Lake
Okeechobee, a shallow water body of about 730 mi2. The lake
periodically spilled water south into the Everglades (Davis,
1943; Parker, 1974), a vast wetland of about 4,500 mi2. Under
high water-level conditions, water in the Everglades moved
slowly to the south by sheetflow, thus forming the area known as
the River of Grass. Water discharged from the Everglades into
Florida Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, and under high-flow
conditions, also into the Atlantic Ocean through sma