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University of Tennessee at Chattanooga helps map the future
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| Andrew Carroll | |
Thanks to help from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, government officials and community planners in the Southeast have a new green tool to help with future development decisions.
The Community Resource Mapper, developed with the Southeast Watershed Forum, blends public and private data on online multiple map layers to create a view of a community that integrates natural resource protection and land-use planning.
“None of this data was in a central repository,” said Andrew Carroll, manager of UTC geographic information systems.
Article:New Community Resource Mapper to coalition to create
HOW TO ACCESS IT
To access the online Community Resource Mapper, go to www.watershed-assistance.net/mapper. Follow the guidelines under “Instructions and Information.” The page provides an animated tutorial for an example of how to use the mapping system, but complete instructions also are provided.
ACCESSIBLE INFORMATION
* Boundaries by state (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia), county and city
* Watershed boundaries
* Impaired streams (in nine southeast states)
* Hydrography (the flow paths of streams).
* Prime farmland soils
* Wetlands
* Protected lands
* NLCD
* Transportation (road names)
* Imagery (satellite images)
* Topography
* Shaded relief
WHAT’S NEW?
Since the Southeast Watershed Forum’s Community Resource Mapper was launched earlier this year, several changes have been made:
* A topographic map layer and a population growth layer (2000-2008) have been added.
* Searches now can be made by protected area in addition to state, county or watershed.
* A new drop-down menu to identify tool results, easy to see map contents, printing options, more fluid zoom capabilities and a status bar to indicate loading speed are available.
The project, which took nearly three years to complete, was built at the university and involved several faculty members and graduate students, he said.
“(The map is) valuable in general to see where biological and ecological resources in a region (such as wetlands and impaired steams) are,” Mr. Carroll said.
It might be best used by local planning offices, zoning review boards and nonprofit agencies — especially in rural counties that may not have geographic information systems — to see what land parcels to avoid, he said.
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