On Sept. 10, at the most recent Comprehensive Planning Committee meeting, the Vinalhaven Land Trust presented the Town of Vinalhaven with several maps assembled from a GIS (Geographic Information Systems) database.
The full-color maps, commissioned by the Vinalhaven Land Trust and prepared by Gordon Longsworth with help from his students at the College of the Atlantic (COA), display an array of geographic information about the island. Over the past year, Longsworth and COA students have collected data on wetlands and watersheds, surficial and bedrock geology, groundwater recharge zones, land use, land cover and wildlife habitat from various state, federal and private sources including the U.S. Geological Survey, the Maine Natural Areas Program, the National GAP Analysis Program, and surveys completed by Robert Gerber, a hydrogeology consultant. In addition, COA students digitized the Vinalhaven’s current parcel and zoning maps; the town will now be able to maintain and update the new digital copies of these maps on its computers using GIS software.
There are still questions about how to provide access to the digital database from which the maps were created, and how to maintain and update it while still protecting its integrity and standards of quality. An eight-person GIS Management Committee recently appointed by the selectmen intends to address these and other important GIS-related issues.
The Comprehensive Planning Committee was impressed with the 11 maps presented by the Land Trust and COA, and felt that this wealth of geographic information will be extremely helpful in the planning process. Longsworth pointed out, however, that the creation of the database and maps is just one step. Community participation will be needed to confirm the accuracy of the maps and to decide how best to use the information for planning.
“I think to get to the point where you trust the maps will take some going through some revisions and additions,” Longsworth said. “These maps are great – they have all this information. But in terms of planning and zoning, so what? The next phase is up to you.”
With GIS software and digital copies of the data collected by COA, the Comprehen-sive Planning Committee will be able to overlay different layers of geographic information and perform sophisticated spatial and statistical analyses of areas of concern. For example, in order to determine parcels suitable for the development of an affordable housing complex, Planning Committee members could overlay data layers displaying zoning boundaries, undeveloped parcels, and those soils suitable for supporting new septic systems.
Longsworth and Vinalhaven Land Trust Director Lucy McCarthy said they were interested in working with the committee to explore ways to use the GIS-generated maps as a way to both inform citizens but also take input relevant to planning. It was noted that putting maps in plastic sheaths would allow community members to “mark-up” maps with additional information, which then could be added to the digital database. Public participation will also be necessary to set the parameters for a build-out scenario, which uses maps to represent a projection of what the community will look like in the future given current building restrictions and recent development trends. Because build-out scenarios have subjective elements, it’s important to allow community participation in determining what land is “developable” and what isn’t. Longsworth said this could be done by allowing the community to weight a variety of different values and considerations, and perhaps even construct different scenarios based on different weightings.
Liv Detrick is an Island Fellow working with Vinalhaven, Islesboro and Peaks on GIS projects.