Web 2.0 spatial data browser for visualizing land-use assessment information from soil surveys

Excerpt

Community growth and development require careful planning and continual monitoring in order to protect the environment and enhance quality of life (Mueller et al. 2008). Failure to do so can lead to problems such as urban sprawl and poor water quality. The impact of these problems can last for decades. Extensive spatial data sets exist that can help communities make better land-use planning decisions. For example, the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA NRCS) provides land-use planning information online via the Web Soil Survey and the Soil Data Mart. These include suitability maps for dwellings with and without basements, commercial buildings, excavation, septic system absorption fields, and roads. Also, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) provides 100-year flood maps in a few formats. Many state agencies have additional digital and analog resources available. For example, The Kentucky Geological Survey (KGS) publishes Geologic Maps for Land-Use Planning, and the Kentucky Office of Geographic Information provides useful data for land-use planning in a geographic information system (GIS) format, such as terrain attributes (hillshade), roads, land cover, and wetlands.

Unfortunately, this information is often not used for planning decisions, which results in less than ideal land uses, such as new developments in 100-year…