Lead Agency:
UNH Complex Systems Research Center

Primary Contact:
Fay Rubin

Project Partner(s):
Applied Geosolutions, LLC, Rockingham Planning Commission, UNH Cooperative Extension, Town of Exeter, NH

Sponsor(s):
Cooperative Institute for Coastal and Estuarine Environmental Technology

Start Date - End Date
09/01/2007 - 08/30/2009

Description:
To help coastal communities make land use decisions to protect environmental character and water quality into the future, we are planning to develop and disseminate a toolbox of geospatial resources for use in land use planning. The information provided by our tools can be incorporated into future master plans and conservation guidelines, serving to inform policies on water resource protection and regulations on land use. By working closely with the Exeter community in seacoast NH and the Rockingham Planning Commission, we make certain that the tools will be both of interest to and accessible by the coastal communities in New Hampshire. Our dual approach of developing software tools using both industry standard software (ArcGIS) and open source tools available in any internet browser will help to ensure that our technology can be widely disseminated and used outside of our pilot community. Our partnerships with both the Natural Resources Outreach Coalition and the National Geospatial Technology Extension Network will provide a backdrop against which the usefulness of our toolbox can be evaluated and communicated to a wide variety of coastal communities across the country.