Cummins Cederberg was contracted to support the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) District 6 Project Development and Environment (PD&E) study for the Seven Mile Bridge replacement. The project included a detailed qualitative analysis of environmental resources present under and around two proposed bridge alignments. A satellite-derived seafloor classification process was conducted to identify and characterize benthic habitats along the potential bridge alignments. EOMAP, a remote sensing company, used a proprietary physics-based inversion method to derive bathymetric and habitat data from optical satellite imagery, which was then refined through manual interpretation and field verification.

Within the EOMAP seafloor classification boundaries, a GIS analyst overlayed the two bridge alignments and GPS points were randomly generated in ArcGIS Pro for field verification surveys. Cummins Cederberg biologists conducted bounce dives at selected ground-truth sites to verify and update the satellite-derived classifications. Using a handheld DGPS unit in the field, divers navigated to each site and identified the dominant habitat type present, recorded benthic species, and took representative photographs. Post-survey analysis led to the refinement of habitat classifications, resulting in seven final habitat types: seagrass-sparse, seagrass-dense, hardbottom, hardbottom-seagrass mosaic, disturbed, sandscour, and macroalgae.

Cummins Cederberg produced a tabular summary of benthic habitat areas within the proposed alignments and developed professional cartographic mapping products for the final Environmental Survey Report. The firm is currently under contract to conduct a follow-up quantitative survey to assess potential project impacts.