Our family gatherings often involve interesting discussions (aka arguments) on politics, religion or other fun topics. Occasionally the conversations stray into the environmental arena. Although many in my family argue against “big government” getting in the way of everything, they have had to agree that some federal regulations like the Clean Water act and the […]
Programs
Low Impact Development in CT: Policies, Drivers, and Barriers
April 5, 2016 Presented By David Dickson & Chet Arnold, UConn CLEAR The concept of low impact development (LID) has been around for quite some time now. So….is Connecticut buying it? If so, how much? If not, why not? New research by CLEAR’s NEMO Program provides some answers to these questions. This webinar will review […]
Living Shorelines in CT: Design Considerations & Site Suitability
March 10, 2016 Presented in partnership with CIRCA, the CT Institute for Resilience and Climate Adaptation An increasing awareness of the need to reduce the potential adverse impacts of hardened coastal structures has prompted interest in the development of living shorelines as an alternative. This webinar will review of the benefits of living shorelines in […]
This is Nuts!
By Tom Worthley, Associate Extension Professor, Forestry UCONN Cooperative Extension Wow, there were tons of acorns this past fall…literally tons. At least it seemed so, in my yard alone! There really were lots of acorns in many areas, and this phenomenon does occur every now and then, why is that? Why the great abundance of acorns […]
Roadside Forests: Management Solutions for Storm Resilience
December 8, 2015 Presented by Tom Worthley, UConn CLEAR, and Jeffrey Ward, CT Agricultural Experiment Station This webinar will highlight the forest stand conditions along roadsides that contribute to the tree issues we encounter during high-intensity wind-storm events. It will also explore how traditional arboriculture and silviculture by themselves have not adequately addressed the management […]
Connecticut Celebrates GIS Day
Every year on the third Wednesday of November, in the heart of Geography Awareness Week, the world celebrates GIS Day. GIS Day is a global educational event that encourages geographic information system (GIS) users to participate in events and programs that showcase real-world applications of geospatial science and technology. According to Esri, the official guardian […]
Ricard Receives Provost Award in Public Engagement
UConn Extension is pleased to announce that Dr. Robert M. Ricard, Senior Extension Educator; has been selected by UConn for the Provost’s Award for Excellence in Public Engagement in the Non-Tenure Track Faculty category. Bob has acquired a distinguished state, regional, and national reputation for his scholarship, teaching (formal and informal), and service. All three […]
Landsat Unveiled: Getting Started Using Landsat Data in ArcGIS
November 2, 2015 Presented by Dan Civco, Professor, Department of NRE, UConn Director, Center for Land Use Education And Research (CLEAR) and James Hurd, Research Associate, Department of NRE, UConn Director, Laboratory for Earth Resources Information Systems (LERIS) Landsat represents the world’s longest continuously acquired collection of space-based moderate-resolution land remote sensing data. First launched […]
Part 3: Customizing Connecticut’s Changing Landscape Story
Visit Part 1: The Story of Connecticut’s Changing Landscape and Visit Part 2: Creating the Story Map of Connecticut’s Changing Landscape This is part 3 of a 3-part blog about the Connecticut’s Changing Landscape Story Map. This blog is the most technical and is meant for folks that already have created a story map and […]
Part 1: The Story of Connecticut’s Changing Landscape
Connecticut’s Changing Landscape CLEAR has been creating and sharing land cover for decades. Our websites and methods for slicing and dicing and displaying the data have evolved along with technology. One thing has remained constant through the versions – the maps (now up to six dates covering 25 years) are a rich set of information with […]
More Than Just a Picture? The Basics of Remotely Sensed Imagery
July 28, 2015 Presented by Dan Civco, Professor, Department of NRE, UConn Director, Center for Land Use Education And Research (CLEAR) and James Hurd, Research Associate, Department of NRE, UConn Director, Laboratory for Earth Resources Information Systems (LERIS) We have all seen remotely sensed imagery, and many of us use imagery as a background layer […]
The Big Picture of Climate Adaptation in Connecticut
June 16, 2015 Presented by Mark Boyer, Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor, Political Science, UConn and Melanie Meinzer, Graduate Student, UConn When confronted with the demands of global climate change, why do some towns move the climate adaptation agenda forward in their communities while others seemingly get little accomplished? To answer this question, we look at […]
A House with One Room
A white-eyed vireo perches high on a tree branch scanning the understory below. She’s searching for the perfect place to raise her young. The nesting site must match the shopping list inside her head: lush, impenetrable thickets of young trees and gnarly shrubs. She needs young trees at least three feet high, filled with nooks […]
Land Use Academy wins award from CT Planners
CLEAR’s Land Use Academy has won the 2014 Education Award from the Connecticut Chapter of the American Planning Association. The Academy, created in 2007, provides basic training for municipal land use commissioners on roles and responsibilities, legal requirements and site plan reading, as well as advanced training on emerging topics. As we all know, land […]
A Map in an App: Drainage Class for 25 States
The Rain Garden App In case you haven’t heard, a couple of years ago, NEMO (David Dickson and Mike Dietz) created a cool smartphone app that is all about building rain gardens. It is full of background information including what a rain garden is, how it works, pictures of existing rain gardens and even videos about how […]
Mysteries of the New Lidar Data
October 28, 2014 Presented by Cary Chadwick and Emily Wilson, UConn CLEAR Lidar is a detection system that uses light from a laser on an airplane to collect very accurate and dense elevation values with many different applications (and it looks really cool!). Connecticut is (partially) covered by a patchwork of Lidar datasets captured at […]
Rain Garden 2014 Growing Season Time Lapse
The rain garden demonstration site at the Middlesex County Extension Center in Haddam (CLEAR and NEMO’s home-base) was installed in May 2012. It was originally installed to be featured in two new NEMO projects, a smartphone application and a “how to” rain garden website, both now complete. The two projects focus on helping people easily […]
Geocaching: A High Tech Game of Hide and Seek
CLEAR’s Geospatial Training Program recently held a workshop for the Connecticut State Museum of Natural History on the art (and fun) of geocaching. Have you heard of geocaching? No? Then you fall solidly into the “muggle” category – aka a human who is not in the know about the greatest real-world treasure hunt that’s happening […]
Maplets: Turn Paper Maps into Interactive Mobile Maps
I am getting ready to head out on my annual backpacking trip to the Adirondacks. I love these trips, but one thing I don’t like is having to constantly pull out, unfold, and then re-fold the huge paper map for the park whenever I begin to worry I might be getting lost (which is way […]
Time to Reassess Connecticut’s Landscape
“Now is the time for Connecticut to move swiftly to save our dwindling open spaces and our great heritage of natural resources for the use and enjoyment of future generations.” Thus began a letter from the Governor of Connecticut ordering the preparation of a plan of action for statewide conservation. The Governor was John Dempsey, […]