Tuesday, November 28th, 2006
If you’ve had the chance to explore CNT’s and Openlands’ Natural Connections website, you’d find yourself in a map-lover’s mecca. In 2002, CNT and Openlands partnered to compile data for 14 counties throughout the Chicago region and mapped out 20 layers of green infrastructure data. The maps are still available to download and print from the site.
Now, CNT and Openlands took the data sets and made the maps interactive. You can search through 19 counties in the Chicago region, including Wisconsin and Indiana, and compile layer upon layer of useful and valuable information. The map is highly customizable, so you can choose an area by zip code, municipality, county, state or even watershed. Then you are able to choose what layers of data you want to see about that particular area, including floodplains, soils types, conservation easements, streets, wetlands, trails, and greenways.
A map of this breadth has not been developed to date and has taken over 100 organizations‘ efforts to compile data, with funding by The Boeing Company, Illinois EPA, The Joyce Foundation, and Chicago Wilderness. Take some time and explore the new site at http://www.greenmapping.org/map.
Maps are not only tools to get you from point A to point B. They can also expose visually an important story about resource patterns and trends of a defined area. They tackle social questions like, “Are Starbucks an indicator of gentrification?” or “Do lower-income communities have less access to fresh produce?” Depicting instances like these help community members and planners better deal with the needs of an area that may not always be clear.