GIS as a Tool for Preserving Land
for Agriculture
and Developing our
Local Food System
Kara Alderisio
GIS Consultant
kara@
GISforLandTrusts.com
Eileen Hochberg
Executive Director, CT NOFA
eileen@ctnofa.org
Nick Pouder
Owner, Mayapple Hill Farm
mayapplehillfarm
@pouder.com
Connecticut's Agricultural Economy
• Connecticut agriculture contributes significantly
• Between $2.72 and $4.6 BILLION each year
• Production includes grain; vegetables; tobacco; livestock;
• greenhouse, nursery, floriculture, sod; logging;
commercial fishing;
• aquaculture, Christmas trees, maple syrup, horses and
MORE
• Processing includes: canning, pickling, drying, milk and
butter, cheese, ice cream, wineries and MORE
Where are the agricultural jobs?
• Employs about 28,000 people
• On farm - almost 21,000 involved in primary agricultural,
fishing or forestry production
• Off farm - Farm support services, agricultural processing,
forest processing, wholesale distribution
Agriculture's economic impact is growing!
• Over 1,000 new farms in 2012 vs. 2007
• 30,000 more acres
• Increase was in farms under 49 acres, less than $50,000
revenue
• Farmers 34 and under, 55 and over
• Over 50% have primary income off farm
Economic impact of preserving land
for agriculture
• Benefits of land preservation overall,
i.e. cost of community services
• Agriculture's contribution to economic activity
• Economic benefits of local food systems
Economic impact of preserving land
for agriculture
An American Farmland Trust survey
showed that farmlands represent an
average of 63 cent net gain of revenue
per dollar for the tax base.
In contrast, residential developments
cost governments 19 cents per dollar.
It is an economic benefit for any state
to preserve working lands.
-North Carolina Dept. of Agriculture
Farming and supporting businesses
are only part of local food system
• Farm-to-table restaurants, Caterers, Retail stores
• Agritourism
• Publications, Radio, TV
• Food critics and photographers, Cookbook writers
• Test cooks
• Marketing
• AND MORE
Coming Full Circle
• No Farms, No Food Systems
• Protecting Land for Agriculture
• Determining the best land
• Considering zoning
• Conservation easement language
• Considering food system overall - markets, etc.
What Is GIS?
• GIS (Geographic Information System)is a powerful
mapping and analysis tool for land trusts seeking to
conserve nature, enhance communities and support rural
economies and culture.
• GIS integrates hardware, software, and data for capturing,
analyzing, manipulating and displaying all forms of
geographically referenced information
• GIS allows us to view, question, interpret, and visualize
data in many ways that reveal relationships, patterns, and
trends in the form of maps, reports, and charts
• the industry standard is ESRI’s ArcGIS
Evaluating
agricultural
suitability
Weantinoge Heritage Land Trust
Study
Spring, 2010
Rhode Island School of Design
Master of Landscape Architecture
Program
Process:
Identify potential conservation parcels using
an impartial ranking system by mapping:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Soils
Slope
Aspect
Drainage
Forest Cover
Proximity to markets/processing
Water Supply
Hydrology/Wetlands
Parcel size
Land use adjacencies
“Sieve Mapping” process - select for positive
attributes (e.g. prime soils) and avoid
negative attributes (e.g. wetlands)
• Seven teams given different
conservation objectives (wildlife
habitat, cultural resources,
agricultural lands, recreational
resources, old growth forest)
• Each determines WHAT to map
• Ranks relative importance of each
attribute
• Divides selected parcels into “Most
Important to Conserve”,
“Moderately Important to
Conserve”, “Should Conserve”
Attributes and Ranking
Rank
Aspect
Slope
Soil
12.0
South
Flat
1-8%
Alluvial
Floodplain
Well Drained
Southeast
Southwest
East
West
Till
0-1%
Shallow depth
to Bedrock
Northeast
Northwest
0.0
North
Drainage
Over 8%
Poorly
Drained
Urban
Aspect +
Slope +
Soils =
Aspect
Slope
Soil
Drainage
0.30
0.15
0.35
0.20
Northwest
3.0
1-8%
12.0
Alluvial
Floodplain
12.0
Poorly
Drained
0.0
South
12.0
0-1%
6.0
Urban
0.0
Well Drained
12.0
All Maps and charts prepared by Ashley Davenport and Lu Gao
Composite
Limitations
• Weighting criteria is not truly impartial
• Requires ground-truthing to verify – one site
selected was an industrial facility; another was a
recreational field
• Not a reliable degree of accuracy for site-scale
analysis
• Not useful as a design tool
Agrihood Design
Program Requirements:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Retain and support an
active 30-acre organic farm
Establish siting criteria for
new homes
Provide communal
agricultural resources
Avoid sensitive ecological
features
Fit as-of-right number of
units
Conform with as-of-right
zoning
Conservation Easement Language,
Other inclusions
• Land Trust Standards and Practices
• Standard 9: Ensuring Sound Transactions – The land trust
works diligently to see that every land and easement
transaction is legally, ethically and technically sound.
• Practice D. Determining Property Boundaries. The land trust
determines the boundaries of every protected property
through legal property descriptions, accurately marked
boundary corners or, if appropriate, a survey. If an easement
contains restrictions that are specific to certain zones or areas
within the property, the locations of these areas are clearly
described in the easement and supporting materials and can
be identified in the field.
Standard 9 Cont'd
• Practice E. Easement Drafting.
Every easement is tailored for the property according to
project planning (see 8G) and:
– identifies the important conservation values protected
and public benefit served;
– allows only permitted uses and/or reserved rights that
will not significantly impair the important
conservation values;
– contains only restrictions that the land trust is capable
of monitoring;
– and is enforceable
Land conservation through agricultural easement
offers many benefits to the community
• enhances property values
• safeguards a valuable way of life for future generations
• ensures an adequate, fresh food supply
• protects the quality of the environment
• protect watersheds
• recharge groundwater
• help control flooding
-Lancaster Farmland Trust
Some Examples of Reserved Rights
• Agricultural and Forest Activities, Rural Enterprise
• Necessary Vehicles, Trails and roads
• New agricultural structures and improvements
• Existing agriculture structures and improvements
• Existing residential dwellings
• New residential dwellings
• New and existing farm support housing
• Utility services and septic systems
Standard 9 Cont'd
• Practice F. Documentation of Purposes and Responsibilities.
The land trust documents the intended purposes of each land
and easement transaction, the intended uses of the property
and the roles, rights and responsibilities of all parties
involved in the acquisition and future management of the
land or easement.
Importance of Mapping
• Standard 11: Conservation Easement Stewardship –
The land trust has a program of responsible stewardship for its
easements.
• Practice B. Baseline Documentation Report, includes baseline
maps prepared prior to closing and signed by the landowner at
closing. The report documents the important conservation values
protected by the easement and the relevant conditions of the
property as necessary to monitor and enforce the easement.
• Practice C. Easement Monitoring. The land trust monitors its
easement properties regularly, at least annually, in a manner
appropriate to the size and restrictions of each property, and keeps
documentation (such as reports, updated photographs and maps)
of each monitoring activity.
GIS Best Practices
Land Trust GIS, co-sponsored by the
Land Trust Alliance and GreenInfo Network
“Whether you do mapping through staff, volunteers or
consultants, GIS can help you assess your current approach
in order to improve conservation outcomes as well as to
better meet LTA Standards and Practices.
- http://landtrustgis.org/best-practices
Typical Baseline Report Maps
1. Aerial map showing easement boundaries
• Town tax parcel data
http://www.cteco.uconn.edu/guides/Parcel.htm
• Boundaries created from mapping software
ie. Map My Land
• Smart phone apps
Boundaries created from Town Tax Parcel data
Boundaries created from Property Mapping Software:
Map My Land software
• entered from property
deed description
• can be exported as a .kml
file, opened in Google Earth
Using Smartphone GPS Apps
Typical Baseline Report Maps cont’
2. Soils
3. Site Location
4. Environmental Features:
wetlands, lakes, streams, topography
5. Surrounding open space and
agricultural land
6. Aquifer/ Watershed Protection
Environmental Features
Baseline Report Map for
Agricultural Easement
Documents the condition of a farm at the time of preservation.
Used for annual monitoring.
Surrounding Open Space
Baseline Report Map for
Agricultural Easement
Surrounding Open Space
Baseline Report Map for
Agricultural Easement
“Farms situated in a farming
community are key. If the
farm is under significant
threat of conversion to nonfarm use, and if that
conversion would be
detrimental to other farms in
the area, the farm will be
given special consideration.”
-American Farmland Trust
Aquifer
Development & Open Space
Aquifer Protection
GIS for ALL
“At the same time as GIS is allowing for more effective data
analysis by specialists within an organization, new GIS tools
are also increasingly effective as a means of reaching out to
deliver content to non-specialists.
We want to extend the power of mapping
to anyone who wants it.
USDA is increasingly porting subsets of its data to
Web applications using such tools as ArcGIS Online.”
-GIS Becomes Indispensable for Managing Agriculture
http://gcn.com/articles/2013/10/18/usda-gis.aspx
Using GIS data without GIS software?
ArcGIS Explorer
http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/explorer
Geomatica FreeView 10.3
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Science-CAD/Geomatica-FreeView.shtml
Google Earth Pro
• available at a discount to non-profits
http://www.google.com/earth/outreach/grants/software/
earthpro.html
• layer structure, overlays, terrain, print, export
• easy to share files