Municipal Planning, Sustainable Development, and Regenerative Design Commitment 3: Protect and Preserve Habitat and Biodiversity in Our River Ecosystem Complete Municipal Environmental Resource Inventories Allan Williams, Highland Park Environmental Commission Environmental Resource Inventory • An ERI is an objective document of maps, text, and figures summarizing the natural resources, biological resources, land use, and historical resources of a community • ERI is written by a consultant with significant input from a local group (e.g. Environmental Commission), who are responsible for “GroundTruthing” the data. ERI Contents • • • • • • • • • • Local and Regional Conditions Physiography, Topography, Geology Soils Groundwater & Drinking Water Surface Water Streams Biological Resources Open Space & Recreation Historical Resources Regional Relationships Composite Map of Environmentally Critical Areas Geographical Information Systems (GIS) • Digital data is incorporated into layers and superimposed on base map • Layers are available from state and county government agencies Geographical Information Systems (GIS) • Problems Data does not exist as a GIS data layer Significant amounts of data is wrong, incomplete, or changes • Solutions Generate your own data and create data layer Ground proof provided data and double check your generated data Geographic Information Systems (GIS) • Use Handheld GPS unit to capture data • Check data with Google Earth • Provide data to consultant to generate layer Highland Park • Highland Park is an urban community adjacent to the Raritan River • River forms the border on the East and South • Storm sewer runs into the Raritan • Two parks (open space) along the Raritan GIS Data on Small Streams Added Open Space Data Inaccurate Contaminated Sites Historic Sites Raritan River Mud Flats Customize Your Community’s ERI • Local groups know their community better than the county or state agencies • Document, check, and incorporate local knowledge into the ERI (e.g. sensitive habitats) • Include your local environmental ordinances in ERI • Convince your Planning Board to incorporate ERI into the community Master Plan Contact Information • Allan Williams [email protected] • Highland Park ERI http://hpboro.com/DocumentCenter/Home/ View/921 • Kratzer Environmental Services http://www.kratzerenv.com/
© Copyright 2024 ExpyDoc
