Maryland's Green Infrastructure Assessment:
A Comprehensive Strategy for Land Conservation and Restoration
Abstract
Like many parts of the U.S., Maryland is urbanizing rapidly. The scattered pattern of modern low-density development consumes an excessive amount of land, fragments the landscape, displaces many native species, and disrupts ecosystem functions. Maryland's Green Infrastructure Assessment is a tool developed to help identify and prioritize those areas of greatest statewide ecological importance, as well as those at greatest risk of loss to development. It identifies large contiguous blocks of natural land (hubs), interconnected by corridors to allow animal and plant propagule dispersal and migration. Hubs and corridors were ranked within their physiographic region for a variety of ecological parameters and for development risk factors, as well as combinations of these. Prioritization was also done on a finer scale (approximately a third of an acre) for ecological importance and vulnerability to development, allowing a more detailed analysis for site prioritization within the network. Model output was reviewed by field ecologists and county planners, and compared to other habitat delineations and reserve systems. Also, human-disturbed areas (e.g., gaps) within hubs and corridors were prioritized for restoration efforts, according to the relative ecological benefits and reclamation ease. In 2001, the State of Maryland established the GreenPrint program, which earmarked funds specifically to protect land in the Green Infrastructure network, where willing sellers existed. To prioritize for this or other funding initiatives, individual parcels are evaluated for their relative conservation value, using a four-tiered combination of GIS, aerial, and field assessment. A parallel effort is being developed for restoration projects.
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Download the entire document [except Appendices]:
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Maryland's Green Infrastructure Assessment
(16,950 KB PDF file)
Download individual sections:
| a | |||||||
| Pages | File Size | ||||||
| Cover Page and Table of Contents | 415 KB | ||||||
| Chapter 1 | General Overview | 1 - 8 | 123 KB | ||||
| Chapter 2 | Background | 9 - 46 | 790 KB | ||||
| Chapter 3 | Study Area and Methodology Overview | 47 - 49 | 122 KB | ||||
| Chapter 4 | Identification of the Network | 50 - 67 | 1,589 KB | ||||
| Chapter 5 | Ecological Ranking of Hubs and Corridors | 68 - 91 | 602 KB | ||||
| Chapter 6 | Ranking Threats to Maintaining Green Infrastructure | ||||||
| Part 1 | 92 - 103 | 1,286 KB | |||||
| Part 2 | 104 - 112 | 1,511 KB | |||||
| Chapter 7 | Coordinating Land Use and Conservation Efforts | 113 - 118 | 415 KB | ||||
| Chapter 8 | Fine Scale Ecological Ranking | 119 - 131 | 1,582 KB | ||||
| Chapter 9 | Fine Scale Evaluation of Development Risk | 132 - 136 | 932 KB | ||||
| Chapter 10 | Desktop Parcel Evaluation | 137 - 148 | 908 KB | ||||
| Chapter 11 | Field Evaluation of Parcels | ||||||
| Part 1 | 149 - 158 | 1,848 KB | |||||
| Part 2 | 159 - 160 | 1,660 KB | |||||
| Part 3 | 161 - 162 | 1,329 KB | |||||
| Part 4 | 163 - 184 | 1,009 KB | |||||
| Chapter 12 | Restoration and Management | ||||||
| Part 1 | 185 - 202 | 1,922 KB | |||||
| Part 2 | 203 - 225 | 920 KB | |||||
| Chapter 13 | Future Directions | 226 - 228 | 108 KB | ||||
| Literature Cited | 229 - 246 | 104 KB | |||||
Download appendices:
| a | ||||||
| File Size | ||||||
| Appendix A | GIS Data Sources Used in the Green Infrastructure | 82 KB | ||||
| Appendix B | Maryland's Green Infrastructure Assessment: Detailed GIS Methods | 661 KB | ||||
| Appendix C | List of Plot Sites Used to Create Initial Field Assessment Protocol | 122 KB | ||||
| Appendix D | Original Data Sheets Used to Create Field Assessment Protocol | 469 KB | ||||
| Appendix E | Amended Data Sheets for Greenprint Evaluation | 948 KB | ||||
| Appendix F | Distribution of Overall Community Scores and Categories After Analyzing Data Collected During Summer-Fall 2001 | 119 KB | ||||
| Appendix G | Ankeney Property (parcel on the Neck only) | 771 KB | ||||
| Appendix H | Avilton Woods (for boundaries submitted 8 July 2002) | 566 KB | ||||
| Appendix I | Donnelly Property | 50 KB | ||||
| Appendix J | Jacoby Property | 732 KB | ||||
| Appendix K | Miller Property (Wolf Swamp) | 389 KB | ||||
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