Landscape Characterization / Impervious Surfaces / Use of Data in Land Use Planning / Natural Resources
Use Data in Land Use Planning
Natural Resources
About Water and Natural Resources Planning
Polluted runoff from impervious surfaces in your watershed affects the amount
and the quality of water in your streams.
Comprehensive Water Resources Planning helps a community articulate
and agree on goals and objectives for protecting its streams and watersheds.
(Include strong graphic of a watershed, etc.)
Site Design and Development Standards provide clear guidelines about
water quality control for designers and engineers. There are many technical
tools and materials available today that can be used to protect and improve
the water in your streams. (Include strong graphic of site design, paving,
etc.)
Mitigate unavoidable impacts by using best-management practices.
Maintenance and stewardship help to protect water quality over the long
term. (Include strong graphic of land protection, ditch maintenance, etc.)
Tools you'll need for Natural Resource Planning
1. A regional map and analysis
You can use impervious surfaces
data to generate a map for your county or watershed.
If you have a map of your watershed or county that shows
impervious surfaces and other natural and human-made features, you can
plan for the future. You'll find that the amount of impervious surface
in your area can tell you a lot about how the locations of buildings and
roads may be affecting your local streams. Especially if you don't know
exactly where the pollution in your stream is coming from (Learn more
about non-point source pollution-jump), you may be surprised that your
stream may be adversely affected even if only 15% of its drainage area
is covered by asphalt (Learn more about impervious surfaces-jump)
2. A build-out analysis
Find out how you can use impervious surfaces data with your current zoning map.
Want to know more about how this works in your state
and who is involved?
Click here to learn more
about how a national watershed planning education model works and download
fact sheets on natural resources planning, conservation site planning,
and other tools.
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