> GIS Feasibility Study

Background

Information regarding the location and type of conserved lands is key to numerous land use and environmental decisions by federal, state, and local agencies, as well as by private individuals and developers. Under the terms of a long-term Cooperative Agreement with the EPA, the Muskie School is committed to "assess the feasibility of developing a GIS-based inventory of conservation lands in New England." This task is assessing whether a single database of conserved land in New England is feasible and desirable. It is beginning with an assessment of available data and the development of a long-term plan to create the regional database and to make it available on-line to potential users, public and private. If this initial study demonstrates feasibility, a grant application will be assembled to secure funding from a variety of federal and private sources for the full-scale project, with demonstration of its potential uses and applications.

Conserved lands of interest include federal, state, and local park lands, lands owned by private land trusts, conservation easements, and other forms of both wholly and partially owned lands.

Project Description

The conserved-lands-database would include data on location, ownership, purposes, restrictions, etc. Records would be geo-referenced for use in common GIS systems, such as Arc View. Maps of the data could be accessible over the World Wide Web using ESRI Internet Map Server or similar software.

The current project is a feasibility study of preparing such a data base and making it available to interested users and decision makers. The project includes:

• Identification of existing GIS databases of conserved lands in each New England state. These may include separate databases or be part of larger GIS data resources such as those maintained by state and federal agencies.
• Assessment of compatibility of data formats and types for integration, including use with planning support system software for scenario-building, such as What-If, INDEX, or Community-Viz.
• Estimation of project tasks, timeline, and costs for integrating databases.
  
• Estimation of costs of making data available through the Internet, through both distribution of the data directly and providing web-based maps.
  
• Estimation of immediate and long-term benefits of establishing the integrated database.
  
• Identification of potential users of and funders for establishing the integrated database.

Applied Geographics, Inc. (AGI: a GIS-company located in Boston: www.appgeo.com/homepage/default.htm) has been contracted to conduct the feasibility study.

To complete the study AGI will:

1. Develop lists of potential and known sources of conservation lands data (one list for each New England state: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island) and contact each entity on the list via email, telephone or in person to obtain information about their data. Information will also be obtained to provide a complete description of the data and enable AGI to evaluate its utility for a New England-wide database. This information will include:

Source - direct collection or indirect integration of other datasets
Fields/attributes
Currency
Frequency of updating
Geographic coverage or extent
Resolution or scale and positional accuracy of geographic data
Format/software
Metadata availability
Future plans for enhancing data
Current distribution methods and formats and costs
Current use of data
Agency mandate to collect/maintain data
List of key contact phone numbers and email addresses

2. Evaluate and report on both the cost of obtaining data sets from other sources, if any, and the costs of establishing a data warehouse (including hardware and software), and the costs of integrating the data. This assessment will consider whether different types of conservation lands data should be maintained as separate layers with independent updating schedules, data dictionaries, metadata, etc.

3. Provide a detailed set of alternative ways that the EFC can serve as a clearinghouse for conservation lands data, whether through creation and maintenance of a single comprehensive GIS data layer or as a repository for data layers maintained by others. AGI will also examine the tradeoffs in data quality and coverage between the EFC's role in data collection and development (recognizing that EFC may choose to actively collect data from different sources, participate in cost-sharing agreements, or utilize existing aggregated databases). This part of the assessment will also consider the potential costs of maintaining or updating a region-wide database.

4. Evaluate and advise on options for making data available over the Web. AGI will advise on the level of effort and costs of creating Web applications that can serve data and maps. AGI will describe the expected functions that such a site could provide and the technical requirements for developing a Web-based distribution system. AGI will describe the trade-offs between making the site more or less interactive with respect to access to maps and data.

5. Assess and report on the benefits of the potential database. This will be done both through the survey of data availability and additional research and contact with potential users who do not produce data - real estate, conservation agencies, planning agencies, etc. Categories of potential users and types of uses and interests will be identified. The benefits analysis will emphasize the qualitative and descriptive; where possible, an estimate of quantitative benefits will be made.

6. Identify and provide a list of potential users of the New England-wide data and contact information for those on the list. Identification of potential funders will be accomplished by directly contacting and canvassing the interest of state agencies, regional authorities, conservation agencies, and others during the data availability survey process.

7. Provide a detailed estimation of project tasks, numbers and types of personnel required to accomplish the tasks, and a realistic timeline for the potential project.

8. AGI will provide a final report that addresses these tasks. A draft report will be presented for discussion with the NE/EFC two weeks before the final report is submitted.

Time Schedule
The study will be completed in April, 2002.
Findings will be presented on this web site, shortly thereafter.

^ To Top