Fall NEARC 2018

AUTHORS: Emily H. Wilson, Cary Chadwick, David Dickson – University of Connecticut

ABSTRACT: The MS4 (Separated Storm Sewer System) General Permit is a regulation issued by the State of Connecticut that applies to 121 of Connecticut’s 169 municipalities. In Connecticut, towns are required to focus their efforts on three priority areas, one of which is areas of high impervious cover (basins greater than 11% directly connected impervious). Percent impervious area within each small watershed identifies the areas of town that should be the focus of stormwater management activities. The impervious surface area was determined from statewide, 1 foot impervious surface data. The thematic raster layer includes three classes: building, roads and other impervious and is available on CT ECO, a website that makes Connecticut’s geospatial information available. It is available for raster and vector download as well as a map service. http://cteco.uconn.edu/projects/ms4

The impervious surface data have been used by Esri and the state of Connecticut for related products that have already saved the state hundreds of thousands of dollars proving, once again, that investing in base data lays the foundation for all sorts of further data development. Making the layers accessible means that EVERYONE can benefit, sometimes in very unexpected ways.

AUTHORS: Ethan Collins '18, Environmental Studies; Peter Pettengil, Environmental Studies; Carol Cady*, GIS Program – St. Lawrence University

ABSTRACT: The Adirondack State Park is an extensive park within New York State that is utilized for a range of recreational activities including, but not limited to, hiking, paddling, hunting, fishing, climbing, and skiing. Numerous opportunities for outdoor activities also creates the potential for parties to become overwhelmed due to injury or illness and require a search and rescue (SAR). Reports of SAR incidents from 2015 and 2016 within the Adirondack Park were obtained and analyzed. There were 528 SAR operations involving 639 victims with 350 searches (54.86%), 268 rescues (42.01%), 18 recoveries (2.82%), and one prison escape involving 2 fugitives (0.31%). Geospatial analysis of the data was conducted to determine areas of high SAR occurrence and seasonal locations of SAR incidents. A model was constructed to analyze SAR incidents involving lost individuals in order to determine the average distance travelled from requesting a SAR to their found location. Finally, weighted raster analysis was utilized to determine areas in the ADK that are the most isolated from rescuers and medical care. Recent concerns have been voiced as the number of SAR incidents continue to grow with stagnant or decreasing numbers of responding personnel. Through geospatial analysis of SAR incidents, future management methods can be tailored to reduce the number of SAR incidents, improve victim outcomes, and reduce rescuer hazard.

AUTHORS: John Marino, NY Natural Heritage Program

ABSTRACT: In the world of invasive species, early detection is crucial – for instance, finding a water-chestnut infestation at a lake when the infestation is only a few plants and manageable by hand-pulling not only saves time and resources, but also helps preserve New York’s biodiversity by preventing the infestation from growing to the point of being unmanageable. This year, NYNHP has conducted a pilot GIS analysis using data from two different datasets to help guide on-the-water survey work by staff and volunteers at organizations across New York next summer. The pilot project focused on 14 key aquatic invasive species.

The Watercraft Inspection Program Application (WISPA) data contains: (1) the waterbody from which a watercraft was retrieved, (2) which invasive species were observed on the watercraft (if any).

The statewide iMapInvasives platform contains data about the spatial distribution of invasive species.

Analyzing these data in a geospatial environment allows us to compare waterbodies in which watercraft are exiting with certain aquatic invasive species attached, but no known records of the same species exist in the waterbody. These waterbodies could thus be considered “suspicious” in their possibility of containing an infestation of the invasive species and should possibly be further examined for presence. The results of this analysis will be made available to the NY’s eight Partnerships for Regional Invasive Species Management (PRISMs) for their use in planning 2019 field work.

AUTHORS: Bruce Willett / SIG Patagon, University of Magallanes, Punta Arenas, Chile

ABSTRACT: Creating accurate and aesthetically pleasing maps for Chilean national parks and open space like Torres del Paine NP, Peninsula Brunswick and Tierra del Fuego, Chile -Argentina is not only a way to promote tourism and financing for these projects, but also supports small local businesses close to the parks.  It is also a way to properly manage the space and visitors in the region.  Attracting visitors away from the overutilized areas to lower use areas provide more opportunities and helps manage growing tourism.   Visualizing land ownership, land-cover, hydrography, infrastructure and imagery utilizing GIS is a way for both local and regional government to properly manage these resources.

AUTHORS: Jessica Rogers*, Matthew King, Robert Luckman, Randy Monica Jr., Nolan Rishe – SUNY Potsdam

ABSTRACT: Purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) is an invasive species in North America. Though it has been in the US for over a century, its invasiveness has increased in the last 50 years, particularly in Northern NY. In July 2017, I began a project to map the invasion of purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) in the North Country. Four student interns who worked on this project as. We had several goals – to document the invasion, to examine the best methods for managing the invasion, and to understand if it might be possible to release a biological control agent. Because biological controls, a beetle in this case, require large infestations to establish their own breeding colony, we needed to map the size of invasions. We spent 4 weeks (mid-July to mid-August) gathering data on locations and coexisting invasive species. The NY DEC agreed to catch and allow us to release a biological control, a beetle known to eat almost solely loosestrife, at the Upper and Lower Lakes Wildlife Management Area (one of the largest infestations). In June 2018, we went out to the largest infestations from 2017 to see if there were existing populations of beetles eating the loosestrife. The beetles arrived and were released in July 2018. We were able to repeat the mapping work in the summer of 2018, and document changes and add layers of known beetle herbivory and sightings. Ultimately, we hope to advocate for management of this species after spatially demonstrating need.

AUTHORS: Rachel Stevens, Great Bay NERR; James Oehler, NH Fish and Game; Catherine Callahan*, NH Fish and Game

ABSTRACT: Funded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department developed a statewide model that can be used to assess existing recreational trails and site new trails in the most wildlife-friendly way. The results highlight areas particularly important for wildlife and areas that would be more suitable for trail development. Accompanying documents will explain how to use the tool, and provide some real-world examples of how conservation organizations have used it to make their trail planning efforts most effective.

Guided by findings in a literature review, and using the most relevant scientific research for New Hampshire, this model is based on the following principals: Keep unfragmented trail-free areas as large as possible; Avoid small patches of high quality or special habitats; Avoid riparian areas, permanent features in the landscape that serve as important wildlife corridors; Avoid locations of rare wildlife.

https://wildlife.state.nh.us/trails/index.html

AUTHORS: Emily H. Wilson, Cary Chadwick – University of Connecticut

ABSTRACT: In 2016, the state of Connecticut flew, for the first time, 3 inch statewide aerial imagery and statewide Quality Level 2 Lidar. The flight was a cooperative effort that increased efficiency and reduced redundancy ultimately saving the state money. The project was managed by Capitol Region Council of Governments (CRCOG) on behalf of the state’s councils of governments. It was funded by the Connecticut Office of Policy and Management (OPM) with contributions from the Connecticut Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Connecticut Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection (DESPP).

The data are available on CT ECO, a website that provides access to Connecticut’s natural resource GIS information including aerial imagery and elevation. The aerials are available in the Aerial Imagery Viewer which uses Esri’s Web App Builder to provide access to 18 imagery datasets (and growing). The Lidar is available in the Elevation Viewer as a digital elevation model which uses Esri’s Web App Builder to provide access to statewide contours and elevation layers including hillshade, shaded relief, slope and aspect. All of the layers are also available as image services and for download. CT ECO is a partnership between the University of Connecticut and Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. http://cteco.uconn.edu/data/flight2016/

AUTHORS: Cary Chadwick*, David Dickson, Chester Arnold, Laura Cisneros, John Volin, Todd Campbell, David Moss, Laura Rodriguez, Jesse Rubenstein, Emily Wilson – University of Connecticut

ABSTRACT: A team of educators from the University of Connecticut obtained National Science Foundation (NSF) funding to create the Conservation Training Partnerships (CTP) program, a new branch of the University’s Natural Resources Conservation Academy (NRCA). The CTP is an innovative program in conservation and land use planning that engages intergenerational learners - high school students and adult conservation volunteers - in informal geospatial STEM learning. A two-day, immersive workshop focuses on intergenerational teamwork and learning and employs geospatial technologies to teach practical approaches to conservation stewardship. The workshops introduce free smartphone apps (Track Kit, Epicollect5) for collecting field data including GPS data and digital field surveys. Participants are also taught how to showcase their data on interactive web maps and story maps. The teams then go on to complete a conservation project together in their community. Both the projects and participants benefit from intergenerational partnerships because of the different approaches to learning and varied skill sets each age group contributes. This poster describes the methods used in the program to bridge these two groups of learners to produce effective, efficient conservation and education outcomes.

AUTHORS: Craig Neidig, Doug Freehafer*, Dan Walters, Lin Neifert, Scott Hoffman, Pete Steeves – USGS

ABSTRACT: The poster will provide an overview of several major current activities of the the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Geospatial Program (NGP) including the 3D Elevation Program (3DEP) and the 3D Nation survey effort, Hazards programs, mapping products such as the USTOPO, the National Map, and highlight various projects of interest ongoing in the NEARC region.

AUTHORS: Jenna Davis, University of Massachusetts-Amherst

ABSTRACT: As planners face increasing pressure to rezone industrial land to more lucrative residential and commercial uses, policymakers have called attention to the declining stock of industrial land in urban centers. In response, cities have adopted industrial land preservation policies that aim to mitigate the decline of industrial land. However, the decision to convert or preserve industrial land carries considerable tradeoffs. While industrial land preservation advocates argue that industrial land provides space for critical urban service infrastructure and houses businesses that offer middle-class jobs for workers with minimal formal educational credentials, industrial land can provide space for residential development in tight housing markets and contribute more to the tax base.

This presentation will use GIS to explore the scope of industrial land decline in NYC from the early 2000s to the present, examining which neighborhoods have faced the steepest decline in industrial land. In addition, this poster presentation will examine the extent to which existing economic development policies have supported industrial uses on the city’s remaining stock of industrial land. In particular, this presentation will examine the extent to which businesses that are located on industrial land and have received economic development incentives from the NYC Economic Development Corporation are industrial versus non-industrial companies. As planners take stock of industrial land in their own communities, this presentation will examine what factors might be driving the conversion of industrial land to other uses and the extent to which existing urban policies encourage the preservation or conversion of industrial land.