North Carolina Wetlands Partnership

PLANNING AND GIS WORKGROUP

The Planning and GIS Workgroup was established to lead geographically-focused wetland planning in North Carolina. Geographic information systems (GIS) have been identified as the ideal tool to accomplish this task because of the ability to assimilate information on existing wetlands projects and future restoration and conservation needs. Workgroup activities include: strategic planning; identification and planning of potential watershed projects; and GIS data management for the Partnership. The workgroup has been collecting information about the status and availability of GIS data layers that are deemed essential to the goals of the workgroup.

The goals of the workgroup are to develop:

• A data exchange system between partners and the public to enhance wetland conservation and restoration activities across North Carolina
• A GIS-based wetland/watershed restoration and conservation model for strategic planning, enabling partners and others to allocate resources to high priority projects
• A GIS-based risk model to identify important changes in wetland status and threats to wetland habitat
• A program to train land use professionals to use GIS wetland planning tools
• Strategic wetland conservation plans to encourage and support collaboration among public and private conservation groups and to direct wetland restoration projects to sites within strategic areas

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