NELF Explorer

New England Landscape Futures Explorer

The New England Landscape Futures Explorer is brought to you by Harvard Forest and the 100+ citizens who helped define this project.  Funding for this project comes from the National Science Foundation and from Highstead. See website for full details.

Visit the New England Landscape Futures Explorer: https://newenglandlandscapes.org/

Summary

In this Tool Summary we introduce the New England Landscape Futures (NELF) Explorer from the Harvard Forest, a department of Harvard University.  This tool explores the simulation of five different possible land use futures for New England, as articulated by stakeholders from throughout the region, for every decade from 2010 through 2060.  One of these scenarios is the business as usual scenario, or the continuation of recent trends in land-use patterns (e.g., forest loss due to development). The other four scenarios represent divergent alternative scenarios that incorporate multiple changes to land use, including planning for the consequences of climate change.  For more detailed information on the scenarios, see the Voices from the Land publication or the storymap that guides you through the details of each scenario.

You can use this explorer to compare how different land-use scenarios impact concerns for management such as development or connectivity in different regions of the Northeast.  For example, a scenario with higher rates of low density development may create more pathways for invasive species movement than a scenario with higher rates of conservation.  Check out these land use maps in your area to see which communities might be impacted by future land use decisions more than others.

Three Things to Try with this Tool

• Look at the change in land use from 2010 to 2060 for just Recent Trends in a county you are familiar with - what are the biggest changes?

• Get interactive summary statistics of changes to land cover for a familiar town or watershed and compare across scenarios.

• Explore the impacts of a scenario on a key metric, such as priority conservation areas.

Utility for Management

• Observing the range of implications that future land-use decisions have on the landscape can help prioritize areas for conservation or monitoring.

• Areas that see more development may subsequently see more introduction pathways for invasive species, but also a reduction in movement corridors for native species.  These may be areas to increase monitoring and management.

  Visit this site for more resources and help for the NELF Explorer and examples of its uses.