Expansion of the Comprehensive Conservation Plan for Chatham County
On behalf of the Chatham Conservation Partnership, the Triangle Land Conservancy (TLC) contracted Biocenosis to incorporate additional natural resources, including agricultural and drinking water resources, into the Comprehensive Conservation Plan (Conservation Plan) for Chatham County. This project included summarizing existing water supply resources (including populations served, allocations, and planned infrastructure improvements), and water quality conditions of water supply resources.
Documentation of all the major streams and their known condition throughout the County was included. A summary of the Chatham County’s Farmland Preservation Plan was also incorporated. The soil classifications throughout county were documented, and the importance of agricultural lands for wildlife habitat was included. A summary of resource supply, demands, and threats was created for each natural resource identified in the Conservation Plan, and recommendations for the protection of water resources and agriculture resources provided.
GIS data was collected to create maps of water supply resources and their watershed area, impaired waters, existing and planned intakes, permitted discharges, public water supply and sanitary sewer lines. In addition, maps of the soils through out the county including prime farmland soils were created and included in the plan.
Data was collected from county agencies to document and map major shared agricultural facilities or infrastructure, parcels enrolled in the Present Use Valuation Program and the Voluntary Agriculture District Program. The location of agricultural hubs/ communities were also identified and mapped.
Biocenosis also held a well-attended community open house in downtown Pittsboro to introduce the plan and maps to Chatham citizens. Feedback from the community on the plan was solicited and documented in the final version.
Biocenosis worked with county staff to make publicly available documentation of all the GIS layers used in the Conservation Plan. Biocenosis created instructions for using the conservation layers in Chatham Online Mapping tool, which can be accessed with the following address: www.chathamgis.com/mapguide/ChathamGISWeb/. The Comprehensive Conservation Plan for Chatham County can be downloaded from the Chatham Conservation Partnership wiki: http://chathamconservation.wikispaces.com.