Neighborspace Baltimore County - Integrating Community Based Conservation and Large Landscape Conservation

NeighborSpace, a non-profit land trust, was created in 2003 to improve livability within the URDL by acquiring and improving land for a variety of open space uses, such as small parks, gardens, storm water management and trails.  As the County’s latest Master Plan contemplates accommodating future growth within the URDL, NeighborSpace saw urgency in developing a strategic conservation plan. 

In 2011, the organization embarked on a planning effort, with support from the National Park Service’s Rivers Trails and Conservation Assistance Program, working with stakeholders from government, the community, and other nonprofits to develop objectives, criteria, and metrics for conserving land within the URDL around the three 3 overarching goal categories (social, economic, environmental)  inherent in improving livability.  This area is within the Chesapeake Bay Watershed and the conservation and restoration of lands identified in the Lands Assessment will contribute to the overall health of the Watershed.

 Using multicriteria spatial analysis to connect goals and objectives to GIS layers and pairwise comparison to solicit stakeholder feedback, NeighborSpace now has a set of maps related to each of its three major goals. With these maps, NeighborSpace can more effectively improve livability by addressing issues such as:

 -storm water management: reducing impervious cover and increasing non-structural solutions

-environmental justice: eliminating or buffering polluted sites;

-community enhancement: improving walkability, increasing land values and access to open space

-connectivity: increasing environmental services and ecological functions