Regional Analysis

One of the most significant limitations of this study was the scale on which it was conducted. This study would have been more instructive if it had been conducted at a watershed or regional analysis.

There are many challenges in the watershed approach, and this study was unable to overcome those challenges. The challenge that had the greatest impact on this study was the lack of regional data. Parcel level coverages were critical for this study, and since they existed in only two towns in the region, a regional study was not possible. The other major obstacle was political coordination among towns. Input from local government was critical for the success of this study. It would have been very difficult to gather this input from multiple local governments.

If this study could have been conducted at a regional level, the buildout analysis would have given a much clearer view of the potential impact and distribution of new development . This information could have more readily estimated the potential impacts on water resources, and provided a clearer view of policies to address this issue. These analyses proved too uncertain to attempt at the town level.

The openspace prioritization section would have benefited from the larger scale of analysis. The evaluation of the scoring systems was difficult partly because the number of parcels that where in question was small, about 300. Anomalies in Charlestown could have been the cause of some of the phenomenon described in the potential impact section. To gain a better understanding of the real value of weighting systems, a similar study should be conducted at a larger scale.

Finally, conducting this study at the town level completely ignored the watershed approach. If the watershed approach is going to be effective, studies should be designed to force political actors to think at the watershed level. The data restrictions on this study and its consequent restriction to town-level forces the policy makers in Charlestown to stay within their boundaries, and perpetuates local planning without consideration for regional concerns.