About Us

The Florida Center is an interdisciplinary research center within the School of Architecture and Community Design, part of the College of The Arts at the University of South Florida. It was founded in 1986 as a statewide research center to address urban and regional problems related to both natural and built environments and to provide design expertise, technical assistance, and applied research to assist Florida's growing communities.

The mission of the Florida Center is to assist the citizens of Florida in the creation of more livable and sustainable communities.

The Center employs faculty and graduate students from 11 different academic disciplines and receives the bulk of its funding from contracts and grants. As such, the Center serves as a primary vehicle for interdisciplinary community engagement at the University of South Florida. The Center employs full-time research faculty, full-time professional and support staff, undergraduate and graduate students from multiple departments, and affiliated faculty from throughout USF. Research areas of interest to the Florida Center include, but are not limited to:

  • Community development guidelines
  • Community indicators
  • Data acquisition systems
  • Data integration and database design
  • Data QA/QC and interpretation
  • Electronic systems technology/instrumentation
  • Energy efficient building design and materials
  • Environmental and neighborhood planning
  • Environmental chemistry
  • Environmental psychology
  • GIS technology
  • GIS/GPS rapid survey techniques
  • Infrastructure mapping using GIS
  • Limnology
  • Livability and social interaction in urban areas
  • Local comprehensive planning
  • Performance measurement
  • Public and stakeholder involvement
  • Strategic planning
  • Sustainable architecture
  • Urban/community design
  • Water resources data management