Images from site visits. Clockwise from top left: Touring existing conservation lands, Examining the existing railroad alignment, Meeting area residents at the County Court House, canoeing Long Pond.
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Alternative Futures |
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Representation |
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In early October of 1993, the class along with faculty from Harvard visited Monroe County to gain firsthand knowledge of the issues surrounding the future development of the area. While there, we met with Township, County, and State officials and informally with many concerned citizens --including a class of third graders from the Pocono Mountain School District. Working sessions were held at the Conservation District Building and the County Courthouse. These gave us, in a short amount of time, a significant understanding of the workings and concerns facing the County. We also visited the townships, drove along the scenic roads, walked through the forests, canoed along the waterways, and flew over the hilltops. We gained an appreciation for the quality of the landscape of Monroe County and a sense of its value. Throughout the Fall, members of the class returned to the County as the need arose. |
In order to describe Monroe County, the largest and most complete data set ever organized for a project at the Graduate School of Design was prepared. It is quite possible that, at the time of this publication, no other County in Pennsylvania has been so thoroughly represented and analyzed. The available resources used in our Geographic Information System --or G.I.S.-- included interpreted satellite images, infrastructure plans, and maps with field notes showing areas of ecological sensitivity. These were gathered from a variety of sources including the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Geological Survey, The Nature Conservancy, and Cornell University (the primary source for vegetation cover data). In addition, several new digital data sets were compiled at Harvard. The data have a spatial resolution of 25 meters and each map of the county has about 5 million sampling points. Some representation maps include: Elevation, Slope, Aspect, Soils, Ground Water Recharge Areas, Surface Water and Wetlands, and Vegetation and Wetlands. |
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Images from site visits. Clockwise from top left: Touring existing conservation lands, Examining the existing railroad alignment, Meeting area residents at the County Court House, canoeing Long Pond. |