Integrated Land-Sea Planning Toolkit
Presentation on an Integrated Land-Sea Planning Toolkit and its use in Aransas County, Texas, by Kiersten Madden of the Mission-Aransas NERR, Amy Anderson of Placeways, and Ian Varley of NatureServe (September 22, 2009). In this project, three decision-support tools (Placeways’ CommunityViz, NatureServe Vista, and NOAA’s Nonpoint-Source Pollution and Erosion Comparison Tool) were used in an integrated manner to develop alternative land use strategies that best meet ecological and socioeconomic sustainability objectives, including water quality and estuarine-marine resource objectives, for Aransas County, Texas, Aransas County is a coastal county that supports a healthy estuary with diverse and rare habitats. The county is experiencing rapid population growth, and the community is interested in protecting the quality of life, natural resources, and water quality. This presentation described the project context, how the local community is involved in use of the toolkit, and methods for using the tools in an integrated manner. A final product of the project is a toolkit that can be transferable to other locations and implementation guide. This project was funded in part as an EBM Tool Demonstration Project by the David & Lucile Packard Foundation.