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Why a Resource Inventory?

This website supports the NEMO workshop Conducting a Community Resource Inventory. In order to effectively plan for your community's future, you need to have a handle on the natural, cultural and economic resources your town possesses. The Community Resource Inventory (CRI) is quite literally the first step in the planning process.

This site will enable you to develop a CRI for your town using available statewide information. A CRI is a list or atlas of the natural and cultural resources in your community. Although the maps contained are appropriate for community-level planning, they are not suitable for site level assessment. However, having a good set of town-wide inventory maps will help you and your town make decisions on the range of challenges: from open space preservation to economic development.

To get started, choose your municipality at Build Your CRI. Here you can page through a series of town maps showing important natural and cultural resources, and access this information in both document (PDF) and data (GIS) formats. While this Inventory should be considered a "bare bones" version that can be enhanced and improved by other sources of data, it nonetheless provides a foundation for sound, rational planning decisions.

What is the Planning Process?

An idealized process for planning generally takes place in 4 steps. We have already acknowledged that the Inventory is the first step in the process. But there is often times confusion between compiling a database of information and maps for your town, and the analysis of that information. Analysis is a separate activity from the inventory and usually involves the manipulation of the data in order to answer questions you or your group have about your town. The analysis step leads directly to the formulation of the Plan, which sets priorities and goals for your town based on your analyses. The Plan also lays out a process for the attainment of the community’s goals, which are carried out during the Implementation phase - that is, getting real things accomplished.

This project was funded in part by the CT DEP through an EPA Clean Water Act Section 319 Nonpoint Source Grant.

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