Land Use 2025 - RhodeMap RI

This section describes the process using geographic analysis to develop the recommended2025 Future Land Use Plan Map. A summary of the inputs, stages of analysis, factorsconsidered, decision rules, and results for each major component of the analysis isprovided. A more extensive description of the analysis methodology is provided inTechnical Appendix D. The geographic analysis consisted of several interrelated parts:• Land Availability Assessment – identified committed and available land withinthe State;• Land Suitability Analysis – combined data on resource values and constraints toidentify the varying suitability of lands for development;• Land Intensity Potential Classification – combined suitability assessment withadditional water resource and infrastructure considerations to assess an optimumdevelopment intensity potential for land in the State, especially undeveloped,unprotected areas;• Development and Conservation Area Prioritization – introduced proximity factorsto prioritize undeveloped, unprotected areas for development or conservation;• Alternative Land Use Patterns or “Scenarios” – defined four options for futureurban form of the State and constructed generalized geographic patternsillustrating these alternatives in terms of intensity and distribution of futuredevelopment;• Evaluation and Scenario Selection – assessed each scenario in terms of landavailability by intensity requirements and for policy conformance, and selected apreferred scenario as a basis for the recommended future land use map;• Selected Scenario Refinement as Recommended Future Land Use Map –analytical and cartographic refinement of the selected scenario to produce arecommended future land use map.Data Sources Used in the AnalysisThe Rhode Island Geographic Information System (RIGIS) database provided most ofthe data used in the geographic analyses. The 1995 RIGIS Land Use/Land Cover datasetserved as a primary data source for identifying land committed to development andseveral other land characteristics; other data included in the analysis were RIGIS-licensedand published, and are documented in the RIGIS Data Catalog available on the RIGISdata distribution website.While the RIGIS database is an excellent compendium of statewide geographic data, it isrecognized that due to the varying ages of individual RIGIS datasets (1995 to 2002),actual land cover/use or other conditions may have changed. For this reason, the analysesof this plan are useful for statewide land use planning purposes only. Analyses presentedare intended as a general guide for directing development, not as local or sitedevelopment decision-support tools. The generalized data herein may, however, serve asindicators for where more detailed local site data should be gathered when a specific landLand Use 2025: Rhode Island State Land Use Policies and Plan (April 2006) 4-7