Planning where to grow, where to conserve

If the goal is to protect water quality, how do communities in a watershed plan the best places to develop or conserve land? What methodology do they use to determine what land is most suitable for development or conservation?

To help answer these questions, the Lake Erie Balanced Growth Program has funded pilot watershed planning partnerships in the Chagrin River, Upper Rocky River, and Swan Creek tributary of the Maumee River (a fourth pilot was recently added in the Chippewa Creek tributary of the Cuyahoga River). The pilots will involve local governments and citizens to designate priority development areas and priority conservation areas. The state will then support the local decisions with incentives and programs to encourage development or conservation in good locations.

With funding from the Joyce Foundation, EcoCity Cleveland has assisted the pilot planning projects by developing a decision support toolkit. This includes a methodology for analyzing land using geographic information systems (GIS), a computer technique for mapping large databases of geographic information. The toolkit will help local decision-makers who are struggling to work across municipal and county boundaries for the first time and align land use with the health of watersheds.

Toolkit features include:

• Scientific rigor: The toolkit offers a scientifically valid methodology for determining land suitability for agricultural, conservation, and development uses in the Lake Erie Basin. This includes a new conceptual framework for a two-pronged approach to land-use decision-making: objective, data-based land suitability analysis and stakeholder value-based land priority analysis. The toolkit uses publicly available data and can be replicated throughout the Great Lakes.
• Practical collaboration: The toolkit was developed by EcoCity Cleveland staff (our watershed planner, Joseph MacDonald, PhD, AICP) in close consultation with staff members of the three pilot watershed planning partnerships of the Ohio Lake Erie Balanced Growth Program. Additional technical committees of experts provided input. This assured that practitioners are comfortable using the toolkit and agree with the assumptions upon which it is based. It also assures that the toolkit supports voluntary and collaborative land-use planning by many home-rule communities in a watershed.
• Theoretical critique of land suitability analysis: We developed an important critique of the way suitability analysis is often performed in land-use planning projects, and explained the proper methodology. We also clarified an important distinction between suitability analysis (which should be based on objective data about the characteristics of the land and its suitability for certain uses) and priority analysis (which involves the application of subjective human values and interests to set priorities for land use).
• Analysis of land-use factors related to water quality: We conducted extensive literature research on conservation suitability factors that relate to water quality. The research raises questions about the effectiveness of riparian corridor protection methods, such as stream buffer regulations, and emphasizes the importance of watershed-wide approaches.

In 2007, EcoCity Cleveland is continuing to work with the Ohio Lake Erie Commission to refine the toolkit and expand its use to other watersheds in the Lake Erie basin. For more information and access to data and instructions, contact Sandra Kosek-Sills at the Ohio Office of Coastal Management, 419-609-4121.

For detailed information on the research and methodology developed for this project, see these links:

Full report: A Decision Support Model of Land Suitability Analysis for the Ohio Lake Erie Balanced Growth Program (PDF, 501 KB)
Appendices to full report (PDF, 230 KB)