The shoreline community of Westbrook, Connecticut, situated halfway between New Haven and New London, is home to approximately 7,000 residents while supporting seasonal tourists with numerous beaches and shopping stores in the town’s outlet. It is also the municipality I was assigned to research and create a vulnerability assessment for during my time at the […]
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Butts on the Beach
Butts on the Beach This past weekend, while stuck in traffic for 20 minutes, I noticed four different people throw 6 cigarette butts out the widow and onto the highway. That, and the fact that I am lazy, moved me to re-post something I wrote several years ago. Recently a columnist in a local Southeastern […]
What is a CFS anyway?
Certified Forestry Surveyor? Calculated Fournier Series? A recent conversation (most likely over a beer, but that doesn’t really factor in here…) with my neighbor provided fodder for this post. We were mapping out our route for opening day of fishing season, and I commented that the Fenton was running over 150 cfs, so it might […]
You’ve Got the Whole Atlas in Your Hand
The NEMO program’s National Low Impact Development (LID) Map is an interactive resource for finding examples of LID like green roofs, pervious pavements, and bioretention areas. These approaches to stormwater management help prevent flooding and water pollution by encourage infiltration into the ground instead of runoff. First launched in 2008, the site now has 1,400 […]
Anti-Bullying Campaign Gets an Assist from CLEAR Offspring
Anna Dietz, the 11 year-old daughter of CLEAR member Dr. Mike Dietz and his wife Sandra Guerrero, was the winner of a contest held by Munson’s Chocolates to design a new chocolate bar wrapper with an anti-bullying theme. The contest description and pictures of the three finalist designs, including Anna’s KINDNESS COUNTS, are on the […]
UConn’s Natural Resources Conservation Academy Adds Two New Education Programs in 2017
Founded in 2011, the Natural Resources Conservation Academy (NRCA) is designed to provide high school students with a structured informal learning experience focused on the environment, natural resources and geospatial technologies. In case you haven’t heard about it yet, let me get you caught up. The NRCA is all about making connections. Connecting young adults […]
CLEAR’s 2015 Family Update Letter
Like ugly sweaters and fruitcake, the family update letter is a wonderfully annoying/possibly charming holiday staple. Here is our contribution to that time-honored tradition. (Note: In keeping with tradition, this post may have been embellished a bit.): Chet Took his first sabbatical after 28 years at UConn. Scoped out a few promising spots to plant a […]
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 […]
A small tribute to clean water in Connecticut’s capitol city.
Have you ever drunk water in a restaurant in the Hartford region? Maybe you live or work in one of the towns surrounding the City, and get your water from the Metropolitan District Commission (MDC)? We take this seemingly limitless supply of pure, clean water for granted, but in the not-so-distant past, obtaining water in […]
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 […]
Digital Storytelling at CLEAR
Not long ago, I joined the CLEAR water team and began to look at the presence of LID (or low impact development) in Connecticut, as a response to the reality of increased stormwater runoff in our state. When tasked with my first blog post (and knowing I was fated to follow the poet Andrew Kinlock), I decided […]
GIS & Poetry? | Speaking of Connecticut’s Hydrography
If you have not already heard, CT DEEP became Steward of the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) and CLEAR has agreed to take the helm to update Connecticut’s hydrography. The NHD is simply a spatial dataset that represents the lake and river features across the country. All in all, we are excited that we will soon […]
Targeting stormwater in Connecticut’s big cities, 1 rain garden at a time
Our older cities in the eastern part of the country have lots of character, however, along with this charm comes the unwanted effects of too much impervious surface draining into a combined sewer system. We have discussed this in a previous blog at CLEAR. Most large cities with combined sewer systems are under order from […]
NEARC is Coming to Connecticut
October 5-8 in Mystic! What is NEARC? It stands for the NorthEast Arc Users Group. What is Arc? It is the name, or a shortened name, for the Geographic Information System (GIS) suite of software created by the company ESRI. We like acronyms. What is GIS? Anything with a location, or x,y coordinate, is geographic […]
NYC Climate March Draws Hundreds of Thousands
Over four hundred thousand people from around the country, young and old, took action yesterday to make a statement about climate change. This event was one of many taking place around the world (http://peoplesclimate.org/), and drew national news attention. My stepfather Trip Barnett attended the march, and he told me that it was a life […]
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 […]
Bringing Some Green to Our Big Cities
When people think of Hartford and New Haven, “green” may not be the first thing that jumps to mind. However, recent efforts of the UConn Nonpoint Education for Municipal Officials (NEMO) program are helping to make these cities a little bit greener, both figuratively and literally. This past June, NEMO partnered with Neighborhood Housing Services […]
The Power of Water
I have been known to occasionally get a bit sappy about water…and with good reason. I feel that I owe my passion for the environment, and for water specifically, to experiences and people that were part of my life as a young boy. My father, uncles and grandfather all took the time to take me […]
Sewage Overflows Help Make Case for Greener Infrastructure
The historic rainfall that hit the east coast this week had some pretty nasty impacts. From flooding in Florida to a stunning street collapse in Baltimore, the images were remarkable. Here in CT we experienced a month’s worth of rain in 24 hours leading to sewage overflows into Connecticut’s rivers and Long Island Sound. In addition […]
TAX ON THE RICH TO PAY FOR CLEAN ENERGY RESEARCH
April 1, 2014 WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a stunning display of bipartisanship, an overwhelming majority of House Republicans voted with their Democratic counterparts to pass a bill taxing the wealthiest Americans to fund clean energy research. Speaker of the House John Boehner explained this seismic shift in policy saying, “So we take a little money […]