Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Data on the site factors that potentially influence your project site begin with collection through
document search, interviews, and site visits with specialists, such as historians, land managers, lo-
cal farmers, and nearby landowners (box 4-1). The checklist in appendix 5 provides a useful format
to enter data from site analysis investigations.
Box 4-1. General Guidelines Regarding the Collection of Data
1. Assemble and review existing documents that describe the general, physical, and
biological factors in the region your site is located.
2. Conduct a preliminary site visit to determine whether the conditions in the field
confirm or contradict those described in the reports you have read and reviewed.
3. Contact former landowners and adjacent property owners who can inform you of
pertinent factors, studies, memoirs, and reports.
4. Contact governmental agency personnel, natural resource specialists, academic
faculty, amateur naturalists, and others who are knowledgeable of past and
present general, physical, and biological conditions on your site or in the area.
5. Collect additional field data for factors that are most likely to affect the success of
your restoration projects (see the discussion of SWOT-C analysis in chapter 4).
Document Search
The collection of data begins with a search of all available records. City, county, municipal, provincial,
state, and federal government offices are often the richest sources. Environmental impact studies,
wildlife reports, land use plans, and other governmental reports can contain relevant data and are
usually available for easy review. The mapping included in these studies can be a great source of infor-
mation. These data are commonly detailed and reliable enough to enable the project team to develop
a baseline data set from which to begin the project planning. With the widespread use of GIS, these
data are often available electronically, which may allow you to develop accurate project mapping.
Copies of environmental studies and reports may also be found at university libraries or re-
search stations. University research projects can be another source of data that could help establish
a baseline data set regarding the presence of certain wildlife species, habitats, ranges, and so forth.
Whenever possible, obtain a copy of the most recent soil survey that covers the overall project
area. In the United States, soil surveys are conducted and published by the US Department of
Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS). Although the soil mapping
may not be at the scale needed for your project, the soil survey will help you understand the types
of soils, soil profiles, and soil properties that you can expect to find on your project site.
Old photographs are another source of data that can aid the restoration practitioner. Family
photo albums and other archived historical records of family farms often reveal much about past
land uses and management practices that could influence your analysis. For example, while work-
ing on an early settler ranch county park (chapter 14), one team member accessed archived re-
Search WWH ::




Custom Search