Adirondack park land use and development
plan map
Introduction
The Adirondack
Park was created in 1892, due to the concerns of the water and timber resources
of the region, today this park is the largest publicly protected area of land
in the contiguous Unites States. The
park encompasses approximately 6 million acres, almost half of which belong to
the people of New York State, and has been protected by the constitution to
remain a “forever wild” forest preserve.
The other half is privately owned land that is made up of homes, camps,
farms, timber lands, and businesses (APA). Recent events in
the American economy have had a devastating effect on towns and communities
across the country, and the Tupper Lake region in the heart of the Adirondacks
is no exception. “A String of economic
blows has left most of the downtown of Tupper Lake vacant, and drastically
affected the population, shrinking it by one-fifth. In an effort to preserve the integrity of the
town and prevent it from becoming a ghost town, the Adirondack Park Agency,
which governs land use in the Adirondack, approved a resort development project
that would sit on 6,400 acres of land in the Adirondack Park, in an effort to
stimulate a sustainable economy and create jobs in this region” (Foderaro). “The Adirondack Club and Resort”, would
include over 650 units of housing, a ski area, hotel, marina and equestrian
center, this project would
be the largest ever approved by the Adirondack Park Agency. Back country fragmentation is a big concern;
the segregation of sections of intact forest due to rural sprawl from large
lots of subdivisions would impact ecosystems substantially. According to the Adirondack council, “None of
the proposed development would be in the Village of Tupper Lake, use existing infrastructure
or help its downtown financially. (Council)”
In order to assess
the impact of development on protected wilderness areas, a detailed GIS model
depicting land use in the Adirondack Park, and Tupper Lake region is needed. Such a model would be a useful tool to
examine impacts to the land through development and determine an acceptable
level of development.
Objectives
This project will depict
the outlines of protected open space and forested land, and relationship to
areas that are zoned for development throughout the entire Adirondack Park to
ascertain what the limit of acceptable development within the park is. A
specified area of interest will be the Tupper Lake region, due to recent
development plans in this area. The more
specific objectives include:
·
The proposed Tupper Lake Development plan
location.
·
A comparison of the new developments and
designated protected areas in the Adirondack Park, to that of historical
development dating back to the last ten years.
·
determine the land cover types in the Tupper
Lake Region
- A web map that can be used as a
functional interactive student guide to navigate through Adirondack GIS
resources for students with little to no background on the region.
Methodology
The process of creating a web-based map using Arch
GIS Online, by importing data layers from Adirondack Park Agency CD Rom with
development zoning.
Data Sources
·
ESRI Data and maps [DVD]. (2006) Redlands,
California: ESRI, Inc. [October, 2008].
·
Shared Adirondack Park Geographic
Information CD-ROM ver.1.0
All data on the CD is in the Universal Transverse Mercator
projection, Zone 18, North American Datum of 1983.
Desired layers of use from CD-ROM
Administrative
1892 Blueline APA 1:250000
(shapefile)
APA Land Classification APA 1:24000 (shapefile)
DEC Regions DEC scale unknown Park (shapefile)
Municipal boundaries APA 1:24000 Park (shapefile)
State Land Unit
boundaries DEC 1:24000 Park (shapefile)
Water and Sewer districts APA 1:24000 Park region (coverage)
Basemaps
7.5-min quad index APA 1:24000 (shapefile)
B&W planimetric base map DOT 1:24000 (TIFF
images)
Place Names USGS,
NMD 1:24000 (shapefile)
Color Base Maps USGS 1:24000 (GeoTIFF
images)
Cadastral
State Forest Aquisition/Old Growth APA,BarbaraMcMartin 1:177408 Park (shapefile)
Cultural
School Districts ORPS 1:600 to 1:9600 Park (shapefile)
Census Block Groups 2000 US Census Bureau 1:500000 to 1:5000000
10-mi Park buffer (shapefile)
Digital
Elevation Model USGS 1:250000
Park (GRID)
Slope
Grid USGS 1:250000 Park (GRID)
Shaded
Relief Grid USGS 1:250,000
Park (GRID)
Geodetic Control
Geodetic
Survey Markers DOT unknown
10-mi Park buffer (shapefile)
Geologic
Surficial Geology NYS Museum/NYS Geological Survey 1:250000 Park (shapefile)
Land
Cover
1982 Land Cover APA 63m x 63m Park
(GRID)
National Land Cover Data Set USGS 30m Park
(GRID)
Digital
Orthophotography Quads OCS 1:12000
Park (various)
Recreation
Trails
NFLI 1:24000 Park (shapefile)
Work plan
Week of February 20th
·
Create first draft proposal.
· Awaiting delivery of Shared Adirondack Park Geographic Information CD-ROM ver.1.0
Week of February 27th
· Import the Adirondack Park Geographic Information CD-ROM into Arch-GIS.
· Import land cover types data layers within the Adirondack Park.
Week of March 5th
· Import Data layers of Proposed Tupper Lake development project.
Week of March 12th
· Import data layers comparing new developments to historic developments dating back ten years.
Week of March 26th
· Import data layers for protected wilderness area.
Week of April 2nd
· Have a completed and functional interactive web-based map of Adirondacks.
Week of April 9th and 16th
· Finalize the maps with professional quality.
· Submit maps for approval and revision.
Week of April 23rd
·
Submit completed Maps and poster board to
client.
Deliverables
What will be produced is a Web map
that shows the land cover types of the entire Adirondack Park, and layers
depicting protected areas, and areas of new developments over the past 10
years. Additionally a map of the
proposed land use and development project in the Tupper Lake Region will be
included. Also included will be a
student guide for easy navigation through the Adirondack GIS Map resources.
Works Cited
APA. About the Adirondack Park. 2003. 21
February 2012 <http://apa.ny.gov/about_park/index.html>.
Council, Adirondack.
"Adirondack Club and Resort." 2012. Adirondackcouncil.org. 24 February 2012
<http://www.adirondackcouncil.org/ACRtupperlakeinfo07.html>.
Foderaro, Lisa W.
"N.Y./ Region ." 8 February 2012. The New York Times. 20 February 2012 <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/09/nyregion/in-struggling-tupper-lake-resort-project-creates-rift.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all>.
