Merrymeeting Bay / Kennebec Estuary Research Program (Bowdoin)

Projects > ES 203

Environmental Studies ES 241 Land Use Planning

Land Use around Merrymeeting Bay

Students in ES 241 worked in collaboration with the Sagadahoc Regional Resources Initiative on a project involving inventorying open spaces in the mid-coast region and evaluated existing protection strategies for these spaces.

Students participated in a regional visioning session, and conducted interviews of residents of the midcoast area on their thoughts about approaches to protecting open space. In addition, Lowell Walker worked to develop a GIS which will help the regional group identify areas that should be a focus for protection.

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SRRI Poster SRRI Poster
Sagadahoc Region Rural Resource Initiative
MAPPING PROJECT
Lowell walker
Sagadahoc Region Rural Resource Initiative
MAPPING PROJECT
Lowell walker

The Sagadahoc Region Rural Resource Initiative (SRRRI) is a cooperative land use planning initiative, bringing together 12 towns surrounding Merrymeeting Bay and the Maine State Government in an effort to make natural resources and development decisions on a regional level, rather than leaving each town to fend for itself.

click image to enlarge
Students participated in a regional visioning session, and conducted interviews of residents of the midcoast area on their thoughts about approaches to protecting open space.
Students participated in a regional visioning session, and conducted interviews of residents of the midcoast area on their thoughts about approaches to protecting open space.

The goal of the SRRRI mapping project is to assemble the data from the SRRRI Visioning Session, representing specific places people think are important, as well as habitat data from numerous state and local government and non-profit organizations, representing what scientists know to be ecologically valuable areas. The completed maps will then be used by town governments to guide their natural resource conservation and land use planning decisions.

Course Description
Land - how it is used, who controls it, the tension between private and public rights to - is central to today's environmental debate. Land-use planning is inevitably part of that debate. It is a bridge between the physical environment (the land) and the social, economic, and political forces affecting that environment. The course exposes students to the physical principles of land-use planning and the legal and socioeconomic principles that underlie it.

ES 241: Resources for the Service Learning Project »
http://academic.bowdoin.edu/environmental_studies/service_learning/landuse.html


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