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Is there a physiographic bias with respect to potential openspace valuation?

  

The Rhode Island Landscape Inventory (DEM, 1990) assessed natural features of the states' land form, soil types, vegetation, glaciation and water. This assessment resulted in the definition of four distinctly bounded physiographic regions. Charlestown is comprised of two physiographic regions:

  1. Salt Pond/Coastal Plain: All land south of Route 1 is included in this physiographic region. The region consists of a terminal moraine from the Wisconsin Glaciation period. Low lying littoral plains, barrier beaches and salt ponds comprise the prominent features of this landscape. Five survey sites are found in this region: Cross Mills Pond, Undeveloped Lots Around Ninigret Pond, Undeveloped Lots Around Quonochantaug Pond, Views from Fort Ninigret, and Farm on Old Post Road.

  2. Narragansett Lowlands: All Charlestown land north of Route 1 is included in this region. Most land in Washington County falls into this physiographic region. Low lying rolling hills, a series of glacial kettle ponds along Rt. 1, wetlands and forests comprise the prominent features of this landscape. All remaining survey sites are found in this region.

Valuation Questions:

 

Question 5

This question asks respondents if they would miss a given site if they moved away from Charlestown. The graph to the right shows a bias toward southern sites, in the Salt Pond/Coastal Plain region. The blue group of sites represents sites in the Salt Pond/Coastal Plain region. The remaining sites are found in the Narragansett Lowlands. Each site is consistently color coded for this analysis. Sites within each region are ranked from highest to lowest scaled, weighted score.

 
Click on graph to enlarge

Question 6

This question asks respondents whether a given site significantly contributes to the unique character of Charlestown. Again, a geographical bias is apparent.

 
Click on graph to enlarge

Question 8

This question asks respondents how important it is to see a given site protected as openspace. The graph at the right shows the trend for greater valuation of southern coastal sites over northern Narragansett Lowland areas.

 
Click on graph to enlarge

Conclusion:

This analysis shows a clear valuation bias for sites in southern Charlestown, located in the Salt Pond/Coastal Plain physiographic region. To determine whether this was a simple artifact of a geographic bias of respondents who may live in this region, 70% of respondent's home addresses was mapped, using a geocoded address match from 1997 tax assessor data. The map at the right shows that the majority of respondents do not live south of Rt. 1. A visual assessment of survey data found that responses from residents living north of Rt. 1 did not vary greatly from responses of residents living along the coastal plain. This supports a conclusion that residents, regardless of place of residence, value areas in the Coastal Plain region the most.


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reference

Rhode Island Landscape Inventory. RI DEM. 1990 pp17-27.

 
CES Land Use Theses Contact: Justin Huxol