A final step in rolling out our new mapping tool was to have the model validated by independent experts. With $4,000 in funding from Keep Maryland Beautiful and the Maryland Environmental Trust, we asked the Chesapeake Conservancy, local GIS experts, to evaluate the model. In their September 2018 report to us, they concluded that "[t]he insights gleaned from this model provide a comprehensive perspective towards conserving and prioritizing open space in Baltimore County."

The model embraces three types of goals (1) Social; (2) Economic; and (3) Environmental. As part of the model's development, NeighborSpace gathered stakeholders together to identify conservation objectives under each of these goals. They include things like improving access to open space under the social goal and the ability to buffer local streams under the environmental goal.  We then did preference testing with our constituents, in collaboration with an expert at West Virginia University, Dr. Mike Strager, to assign weights to the model, which are reflected in the pie chart below:

We are grateful to our long-time consultant, Thayer Young, and  Cicada GIS Consulting, for building out our database using ArcGIS software so that we can put all of this effort to use. Its practical application is the ease with which the tool can be overlaid on top of potential conservation projects. We can then see how the projects rank on all 3 goals and make a determination about whether they merit further study.

A case in point is the Six Bridge Trail Project being pursued by citizens in Towson. The map below shows plans for the trail route beginning in the Overbrook community and continuing northward along Herring Run to Aigburth Rd.

When we overlaid our environmental conservation layers on the project map, we got the result below. It tells us that the entire project area ranks highly on these measures, based largely on the opportunities for conserving forest and stream forest buffers.