|
Track: Environmental Management
Larry Finch
ACRT, Inc
2545 Bailey Road
PO Box 401
Cuyahoga Falls, OH 44221
Telephone: 1-800-622-2562
Fax: 330-945-7200
Todd Crandall
Implementing a Watershed Approach for Avoidance and Mitigation of Development Impacts Utilizing GIS Technology
Defining Issue: Concerns about impacts associated with construction of a proposed new highway interchange prompted State transportation and environmental review authorities to call for a coordinated effort to facilitate Section 404 permitting on a watershed basis. The proposed interchange would be constructed near the corporate boundaries of two communities in the Mud Brook watershed. Direct development impacts would occur in both communities, with indirect impacts occurring in the entire watershed, which encompasses portions of seven communities. Realizing that political boundaries are an insufficient basis for managing natural resources and that a watershed perspective for permitting would better ensure sustainable environmental and economic success, ACRT, Inc., was hired to conduct a comprehensive natural resource analysis and to develop a watershed management plan. At the heart of the comprehensive natural resource analysis is the Index of Ecological Integrity (IEI). The IEI is a procedure developed
by ACRT to characterize the environmental quality of land area. GIS Solution: The Mud Brook Watershed Management Plan is being developed with the assistance of GIS technology. Utilizing Esri's ArcView, volumes of data are being entered into a watershed database. ArcView allows the various components evaluated in the IEI to be converted into a single composite IEI score for each cover type area. The resulting IEI map is useful in developing watershed land management and conservation strategies and will be integral to the development of a watershedwide General 404 Permit and the establishment of wetland mitigation banks in the project area. Further, data layers are utilized by the participating communities to deal with day-to-day planning and development issues. Software: The IEI and all other geographically referenced watershed data are being input to ArcView Version 3.0 and manipulated using Avenue. The proposed presentation and paper will focus on the IEI as a land characterization tool for land
management, and the application of GIS technology in land characterization, planning, and permit policy development.
|
|
