The Fairfax County (Va.) Park Authority has selected PlanGraphics, Inc. to define and map ecologically significant resources and to develop and test a conceptual model that can be used to help target the Authority’s natural resource protection programs and efforts. The Department of Environmental Science & Policy at George Mason University and the Potomac Environmental Research and Education Center will work with PlanGraphics to conduct the analysis and modeling effort. The Green Infrastructure Center, a not-for-profit organization in Charlottesville, Va., may also participate in the project with PlanGraphics.
The approximately one-year project will involve determining how green infrastructure principles and plans have been used to protect ecological resources in other locations in the United States and abroad and how they may apply to Fairfax County; establishing goals and objectives for using ecological data and modeling; inventorying existing data and applications and determining opportunities for consolidation and improved data management; developing conceptual model options and a final model procedure and application protocols; and testing and demonstrating the final model with actual data for a pilot location in Fairfax County.
