News
Archives 2001
Article
below appeared in the CANR
Journal - Oct/Nov/Dec 2001 issue (Vol. 8, No. 4)
© 2001 University of Connecticut
12/01 - New Center Brings Together Land Use Programs
By Kim Colavito Markesich
A new
center is being created in the College that will bring together
existing land use programs and make way for new ones. The Center
for Land Use Education and Research (CLEAR) creates an umbrella
for these programs that will expand research, teaching, outreach,
and student support.
CLEAR
incorporates the philosophy of land grant, space grant, and sea
grant college systems into what NASA has been calling an "earth
grant college" approach. Although the term "earth grant" is
not officially recognized, College faculty have taken the idea
to heart.
CLEAR
will focus on the impacts of land use on natural resources. "The
intent of the Center is to bring together expertise, data, education,
and technical tools to assist Connecticut communities in their
land use planning," says Daniel
Civco, CLEAR’s director.
The
center assembles a talented crew with a record of success. In addition
to Civco, a renowned expert on remote sensing and GIS, principals
include Chet Arnold, CLEAR’s associate director and water
quality educator; Jim Gibbons, land use planning educator; Sandy
Prisloe, geospatial extension specialist; and Steve Broderick,
state forester.
"We
see the new center as an umbrella for our ongoing programs that
have some key elements in common," says Arnold. "They’re
all about land use and they all result in practical educational
programs with information and tools for land use decision makers
in the state."
"Just
about every town in Connecticut is facing the challenge of how
to balance the need to save their important natural resources
and at the same time develop to help the tax base," adds
Gibbons. He continues, "Extension’s role is to take
research at the University out to the public, presenting it in
a way that is understandable and meaningful so that it can make
some change."
Several
very successful programs will be a part of CLEAR:
- The
nationally recognized NEMO (Nonpoint Education for Municipal
Officials) program addresses
non-point source pollution, now in 22 states across the country.
John Rozum is the national network coordinator, and Laurie
Giannotti is Connecticut program coordinator.The
Community Land Use Planning Program is an ongoing state-funded
project.
- The
Green Valley Institute ensures that community and
individual land use owners in northeastern Connecticut’s
Quinebaug-Shetucket National Heritage Corridor have the knowledge
necessary for future planning.
- The
new Earth Grant Geospatial Technology Extension Program provides
geospatial education and training to help local officials understand
and benefit from remote sensing, GIS and GPS. Connecticut was
the fourth state selected by NASA to place a geospatial specialist
The three states to pilot this program were Utah, Mississippi,and
Arizona.
- The NAUTILUS (Northeast
Applications of Useable Technology In Land planning for Urban
Sprawl) program focuses on research methods for detecting land
use change and developing quantifiable measurements to characterize
urban growth, specifically how land use change causes forest
fragmentation.
- The
genesis of the remote sensing and GIS research program dates
back to 1990, when Civco founded LERIS, the
Laboratory for Earth Resources Information System. In 1997, LERIS
was officially recognized as a NASA Center for Excellence of
Earth Observation. Currently, LERIS-related projects support
four full-time research assistants and eight to ten graduate
students.
One
focus for the past few years has been on developing methods that
characterize impervious surfaces, an important indicator of the
impacts of development on waterways. Other research tracks involve
measuring change in the Connecticut landscape over the past 30
years, with particular attention to the growth of urban land at
the expense of forest and farmland. High-resolution satellite information
is a major part of this new research. "We
actually have satellites that rival the quality of those used by
the intelligence community," notes Civco. With
these new cutting-edge data as a foundation, CLEAR hopes to expand
and enhance its many educational programs for Connecticut communities
and land managers.
Current
annual funding for existing CLEAR-related programs totals over
$600,000, from a variety of sources including the Connecticut Department
of Environmental Protection, Connecticut Sea Grant, the Quinebaug-Shetucket
National Heritage Corridor, USDA, CSREES, the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, NOAA, and NASA.
With
the establishment of CLEAR, researchers and educators at the University
will be able to create a truly integrated esearch, education, applications,
and outreach facility that makes meaningful con-tributions to our
understanding of, and ability to address, the impacts of land use
practices and change on natural resources.
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