Class2010Feb05

**Class Assignments and Agenda for Week 4, 2010 Feb 5**
Class meets from 9:10 - 11:55A in 3214 Jordan Hall, NCSU


 * The major objectives for this session are to ...**
 * Establish priorities for each section
 * Establish deadlines and milestones


 * Things to do before class**
 * Continue refining outlines for each section - separate into top priority items and secondary priorities.
 * Write down data questions for Leigh Ann Cienek (TLC) and Emily Ander (Raleigh, compiler of Orange County report) who will participate this week.
 * Post these items on your section pages by Thurs 4 Feb noon.
 * Hess, Bigsby, Stocking ah hoc milestone team - create proposal for discussion
 * Review outlines for report - Reach from report outline
 * Review proposal for milestones and deadlines - see course calendar page


 * Annotated Agenda**


 * 9.10 Any needed introductions; select timekeeper and note taker**


 * 9.15 Emily Ander and Leigh Ann Cienek**
 * Emily to talk about her work compiling Orange County State of Environment (10-15 min)
 * Leigh Ann to talk about data TLC has available and how it might be made available to us (10-15 min)
 * Open discussion, focused on prioritizing our efforts, issues of compiling data, and collaboration with TLC - break out into small teams and allow Emily and Leigh Ann to circulate


 * 10.30 Break**

- We will develop deadlines and milestones (ad hoc team Hess, Bigsby, Stocking) - Agreed on work assignments - as identified in Items to do before meeting (above) - Main goal is to get some priorities set so that we can start collecting and analyzing data - Tabled report format decisions - deadline will be included in milestones
 * 10.45** **Review from last meeting - decisions and table items - consent agenda items - no discussion unless there is disagreement**


 * 10.50 Review what we learned from Emily & Leigh Ann**

- Review proposed deadlines and milestones and reach consensus on them - see course calendar page ** - Other questions floating out there as a result of thinking about this
 * 11.10 Deadlines and Milestones
 * How will GIS work get coordinated and done?
 * We need to keep procedure records, data audit trails, datasets, etc and transmit as part of the report
 * Everyone with data needs to do some kind of backup


 * 11.40 Summary and action items**


 * 11.55 Adjourn**


 * 12.00 Lunch** - bring your own food and drink


 * Notes**

Class Notes: 2/5/10 -Introduction: Guests: Emily Ander and Leigh Ann Cienek Discussion: Orange County Report and data available from TLC/ advice on how to find certain data. -Brief introduction of our State of the Environment report to Emily and Leigh Ann: -Sections created based on TLC’s 4 public benefits - Explanation of framework by George - Each section summarizes and breaks down their respective indicators to give Emily and Leigh Ann an idea about the direction each group is taking. -Emily Anders: - Brief introduction from Emily, including her experience at TLC and as working for Raleigh park planning. - Discussion on history of State of the Environment (SOE) Report for Orange County which was developed in 2000, 2002, 2004, and 2009 (was not done in 2006 because not enough change had occurred between 04-06) - Emily’s directive was to develop the 2009 Orange County SOE report. - She explains strenuous process of data collection and gives advice:
 * George notes: that we will be submitting a copy of our streamlined outline for the whole report to TLC by Tuesday.
 * Emily notes: what year are we looking to go back to as far as a baseline for comparative analysis? <>
 * The more leeway time the better to get any data requested from the organizations we will have to contact for data

ex: create uniform spreadsheets for the organizations Ex: (from Orange County’s SOE) Intermediate, Improving - ** She brings up big problems she had with developing the 09 Orange County Report: - Data is not consistently available and you cannot mash information that is available together, so a solution is to mark or make a note of when this problem arises throughout the report. Be sensitive, cautious and careful when making notes such as these, remember who may be reading. ** Ex: “There are gaps here in data available so cannot report on this information” - Emily begins a discussion and breakdown of the Farmland, Land Usage and Water section of Orange County’s 2009 SOE report. Brief Farmland section suggestions from Emily: - May be interesting to investigate roll back taxes paid, which would indicate how much farmland lost. Possibly recommend that these tax dollars go back into preservation? Brief Water section suggestions from Emily: - Investigate Waste spillage into surface water and associated fines (none collected after 2000!) - Sources: Jeff Hughes- (George has name and contact info I believe) regarding water supplier versus where water is being used. General Sources: USGS, Water Providers, Environmental Health, State Level has info as well. - Advice: DENR info on streams is really inconsistent. - Interesting to note about Orange County’s 2009 SOE report was that it had a conclusion, which brought it down to the homeowner/citizen level and perspective. - Leigh Ann Cienek: <> -Open Space suggestions from Leigh Ann: - Every county is going to have different classifications for indicators, so maybe definition of indicators or maps will have to be on a county by county basis. Also, it may be helpful to look at the state level for information that is less varied with classification of indicators. - Heritage is a great source and will probably have the most consistent data. - A good baseline might be the Open Space Land Report of 2001 - General comment from Leigh Ann: As far as sensitivity to any of these indicators, maybe take a look at the Orange County SOE Report to gauge and check what information we have presented. - Natural Heritage suggestions from Leigh Ann: -Sensitivity: You may not want to distribute some specific information (ex: exact locations of rare species or addresses of some of these natural heritage sites), but on the larger, triangle counties scale, this should be okay. - Forestry suggestions from Leigh Ann: - This is an extremely sensitive topic as well. - TLC has a lot of data and summaries on this information so they would be a good resource. - A “present use” evaluation may be interesting. - Wildlife suggestions from Leigh Ann: - There is no mapping where specific species are located. - Farming suggestion from Leigh Ann: - TLC has information for the past couple years on farming in the triangle, she will provide us with this information. - Something interesting to examine may be the Voluntary Ag District State Program, where farms owners voluntarily enroll for intent to protect land, meaning they are not to develop land. This is a fairly new program but interesting maybe to examine. - Sources for this program: - Extension Office or Soil and Water Departments in each county- each county has different requirements for the program though… -Advice: - Best unit of analysis: Common Field Units - State Conservation Tool is the best way to get information when information may be sensitive. - Warning that you may have to contact each county individually. - Water Quality suggestions from Leigh Ann: -Good sources: 303d, DWQ, USGS, TLC has information on water supply and watersheds in the area, NC One map is also helpful. - Recreation suggestions from Leigh Ann: - TLC has greenways of the area data though it is not the best and most consistent or reflect what is actually happening on the ground. Ex: Johnston and Chatham do not have a map of greenways. - Advice: Maybe do summaries of miles per county because of lack of inconsistent information. - Sources: TLC has information on environmental education (a study was done) in the triangle and can provide us with that information, WRC- tracks boat access, // Paddle // // Guide to NC // also has boat access information pinpointed on a map and indicates public and private access. - General things to think about from Emily and Leigh Ann, maybe for more discussion later?: -How much data for indicators are we just going to have to break down county by county? - What are we going to do about data archiving and format? - Should we create a CD of data to go along with the report? - General Advice from Emily and Leigh Ann: -Remember to follow up with the people that we contacted for data. For example, send a thank you note and a copy of the report. - Brief Review of last meeting (1/29) - Review/Discussion of Meeting with Emily and Leigh Ann - Data is going to be harder to find than we think! - For contacting organizations, we are going to need to develop a common “contact persons” bibliography - General bibliography and links: George will make a separate page for this on the wiki as well. -Caution for above: Always think about “what would the person I am writing about think about this”, also do not put the results of the interview on the wiki. Keep in mind sensitive information, meaning no personal e-mail’s or home phone numbers. -How are we going to receive the data mentioned by Leigh Ann and Emily from them? They will send the information and links. - Inconsistency of data: - May have to only do a county by county analysis. - Footnotes and technical notes will have to be our friend. à Lauren will head up committee to create a template for collecting data sources. - Remember to keep an external hard drive or USB stick backup of all data! -Review/Discussion of Deadlines and Milestones (all posted under each class date on the wiki): - Started with the final deadline and presentation of May 7, 2010: worked through minor kinks with UNC’s graduation being that day, etc. - Went back to beginning milestones/deadlines to discussion each one point by point. - Point brought up: - Not many GIS pro’s so need to create a deadline for when to submit information for GIS analysis to the pro’s (will be discussed next session 2/12/10) -In general, went through and worked out minor kinks (basically only with graduation date for UNC/final presentation and remembering only a few GIS pros. As well, milestones for the development of our final presentation were edited slightly.) - Edited milestones for dates 4/16, 4/23 and added a milestone to 4/9. -Parked? <> When do we want to meet at UNC and Duke?
 * Think about format that we want to receive the data in from these organizations
 * When attempting to receive data from organizations, it is helpful to e-mail your contact there first and mention any familiar connections/networking between you two (as in if you know someone in common).
 * Define // everything // when using terms
 * Think about descriptive terms definition as well when discussing trends with indicators.
 * Comments from George: Have to really think about including information that resembles us suggesting “How to live life environmentally”, we may not want to come off as extreme in that sense.
 * Comments from George: Maybe throughout the report we can note how inconsistent the data is in specific instances and why it may seem we are missing certain analysis. Maybe this will be a sort of “wake up call” for organizations that collect this data. Maybe could be included in our recommendations?
 * TLC can help with obtaining more detailed information when they receive it.
 * Comments from George: Maybe we will have to publish only what is available as a sideways influence towards getting counties to be more detailed in their recording.
 * Space on wiki for us to put contact information for all contact persons that we are in touch with throughout the development of data.
 * George will make a separate page for this.
 * Do we need to have a footnote committee to keep track of data and analysis?
 * Ginevra likes cookies

- Discussion on Formatting Outlines: - Streamline outlines along the lines of what local farms & food did - Remember to highlight primary and secondary items/goals to be achieved/data to collect.

- Assignment for week: - Submit streamlined outline to George by 12 Noon on Tuesday, February 9th, 2010. - Work on collecting primary data so that we can accomplish this milestone for next week: - Solidify conceptual format for each indicator page decided - what are the elements on each page? Think about this and be prepared to discuss. - Words of Advice from George: - It is going to be harder that we think to collect similar data - Everything starts somewhere, so even if we only get a quarter of the information that we want, this is not a failure. - We need to do the best we can and point out holes. - Make the best recommendations we can. - Limited people and limited time: Solid and defendable, even if less, is better than a lot of half assed data. - We may need to have write ups about // why // we don’t have everything -Final Discussion: -Ecosystem services, what about this? Ideas: Maybe incorporate into the introduction? Maybe monetize this? -We need to decide as a group if want to take this track, so lets digest this for a week and come back to it. - Aimee will put up tools and resources she has found on wiki. - Keep ecosystem services in mind when collecting data this week.