The Ground-Truthing Map is the most current and comprehensive open space map to be created for the Connecticut River estuary towns of Chester, Deep River, Essex, Lyme, Old Lyme, Haddam, East Haddam and Old Saybrook. It has been created in an effort to identify opportunities for linking existing, and potential, open space and vacant or near vacant parcels, toward the goal of encouraging collaborative open space protection.
In addition to identifying the many classifications of “protected” parcels, the Ground-Truthing map identifies vacant parcels greater than 5 acres and parcels greater than 25 acres with structures. Parcels greater than 10 acres may also contain outbuildings. Identifying parcels with structures allows for the possibility that a willing landowner may be amenable to allowing a connecting trail or trail buffer through their property; this helps identify possible parcels, and landowners, that can contribute to a regional open space protection or greenway effort. Both maps include known and/or digitized trails from the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, and the Connecticut Blue Blaze Trails, from the Connecticut Forest and Park Association. Each parcel was categorized for land use using the Land Based Classification Standards created by the American Planning Association (see below).
The Conservation Index Map weights parcels according to the total number of protection index attributes each parcel has (see Protection Index, below). For example, a parcel with none of the protection index attributes is shaded pink, whereas a parcel containing up to 5 or 6 of the attributes, such as inland wetlands, farmland soils, or waterfront, etc., is shaded black. This evaluation allows some level of weighting to identify areas of particular conservation interest, and therefore priority.
Inland Wetland: (CT DEP) 1:12,000 wetland soils data layer; acquired 10/8/06, 1:24,000 hydrography data; acquired 7/7/06
Tidal Wetland: (CT DEP)
Farmland Soils: (CT DEP) 1:12,000 data layer; acquired 9/12/06
Waterfront: (CT DEP) Contains or has frontage on a pond or lake 3 acres or greater, main stem of the Connecticut River or major tributaries, or frontage on Long Island Sound
Connected to Existing Open Space: (abutting or in close proximity)
Connecticut DEP Natural Diversity Database(NDDB): (CT DEP) 1:24,000 scale of general areas of concern regarding state and federally listed Endangered, Threatened and Special Concern species and significant natural communities. Downloaded 8/2/06; updated 12/20/06.
Other fields included in the database are the tax assessor’s account number, the map, block and lot identifier, and the street address for each parcel. Each of these attributes, depending on the municipality, can be used as a unique identifier to join this data to the geographic information system (GIS) digital parcel layer for each municipality.
The American Planning Association has updated the Standard Land Use Coding Manual, A Standard System for Identifying and Coding Land Use Activities in a project called Land-Based Classification Standard (LBCS). This system is designed around the idea of Albert Z. Guttenberg’s concept of a land use classification model that would be flexible enough to be used for many planning purposes and be able to assess and understand present land use in order to project future land use needs. The primary divisions for the database consist of:
Activity: observable use of the land
Function: economic function or type of establishment using the land
Structure: type of structure or building on the site
Site Development Character: overall physical development character of the land
Ownership: the relationship between the use and its land rights
The Ground-Truthing map data set mirrors the DEP Office of Long Island Sound Programs CLAM data base by collecting information on parcels greater than 5 acres or parcels larger than 25 acres with a structure, contains wetlands, tidal wetlands, is within a NDDB area, contains waterfront, or whether the parcel is connected to existing protected open space.
Protected Open Space
Protected open space is defined as any parcel owned by the State of Connecticut, the Connecticut River Gateway Commission, a municipality, a land trust, The Nature Conservancy or other non-profit conservation organization, or a public utility. Some parcels that met this criteria were eliminated when their characteristics determined them unsuitable for use as open space, greenway or for trail development.