Florida seen from the satellite Envisat - Florida seen from space - This image of...

Florida seen from the satellite Envisat - Florida seen from space - This image of Envisat depicts the southern tip of Florida, located in the southeastern United States. The peninsula advances from the Atlantic Ocean (right) to the Gulf of Mexico (left) for more than 550 km. The circular brown spot is Lake Okeechobee, the third largest freshwater lake entirely in the United States, after Lake Michigan and Lake Iliamna. It covers an area of approximately 1,900 km2, for 220 km of shoreline and an average depth of 4 m. The Everglades are the largest subtropical natural environment in the United States and cover some 10,000 km2 at the tip of the peninsula. This region has shallow, almost stagnant waters and is covered in abundance with mariscus, a plant that sometimes grows so inextricably that the water becomes barely visible, which earned the Everglades their nickname “Grassy River”. Everglades are the only place in the world where crocodiles and alligators coexist. Their wetlands are also used to limit the effects of storms and provide drinking water to residents of southern Florida. The Everglades were designated “Wetlands of International Importance” by the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. They are listed as World Heritage Sites and constitute an international reserve of the United Nations biosphere. Southeast of Okeechobee Lake is the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Reserve (a dark teardrop spot). This reserve provides wildlife habitat for northern Everglades. The city of Miami appears in pale green on the coast, just below the national reserve, while the city of Orlando appears in pale green just inside the land, not far from the Atlantic coast, above Okeechobee Lake. The different