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Rural Character Plays a Small Role in Land Preservation Criteria |
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Salt marsh, East Bay Bike Path, East Providence, RI. October, 2000
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Recently, Rhode Islanders overwhelmingly passed a $34 million bond for the protection of open space. But how does Rhode Island determine which land will be bought? Since rural character is so intangible, land is usually preserved for a variety of other more quantifiable reasons, namely habitat protection and recreation use. However, rural character and scenic attractiveness are taken into account to a somewhat lesser extent. The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management lists criteria for protecting open space in its Open Space Grants Program. Out of a possible 80-100 points, scenic quality counts for only 10 points, while recreation and habitat compose the other 70-90 points. The following is an excerpt from the list of criteria Rhode Island uses to protect land - the only section on scenic quality or rural character:
"Scenic Features: The property possesses outstanding scenic/aesthetic values. While less subject to objective evaluation, a property determined to possess particularly scenic or aesthetic qualities is to be given consideration. The Rhode Island Landscape Inventory (1990) will be used as a guideline for assessing the scenic attributes of sites, based on the region within which the subject property occurs. Scoring: Each property is evaluated using the checklist keyed to the physiographic region within which it occurs, with points assigned on a scale of 1-10 based on the quality of the scenic features present." - RIDEM, Division of Planning and Development, Primary Scoring Criteria
How exactly does Rhode Island "assess the scenic attributes of sites"? After many years of attempting to really determine what Rhode Islanders mean when they call a landscape "scenic" (see History of Rhode Island Scenic Inventories), in 1990 Rhode Island finally developed the Rhode Island Landscape Inventory, a quantitative way to rank how "scenic" a landscape really is.
Go to Rhode Island Farms and Rural Character.
(See Inconsistencies and Data Gaps, and Future Work.)