| dc.description.abstract |
The Land Trust for Central North Carolina is a non-profit organization that works
to protect and preserve land – natural areas, rural landscapes, family farms, and
historic places within North Carolina’s heartland. For this client, we were tasked
with performing an ecosystem service analysis to determine the benefits that The LandTrust’s
properties offer to humans. Of the many ecosystem services these properties generate
for human benefit, we examined water quality, carbon storage, and recreation using
geospatial data available from the USGS, the US Census Bureau, and NC OneMap to demonstrate
the value of land protection. To aid in future conservation decisions, we also determined
land use change and forest type change in The Land Trusts’ counties of operation on
non-protected lands. Through geospatial analysis, we were able to quantify these select
ecosystem services, which will aid in making these abstract ecosystem services more
tangible. Our non-monetary quantification of 3 ecosystem services from already protected
lands will help The LandTrust describe the benefits of land for a range of different
interest groups. With our land use and forest changes results, The Land Trust can
further focus conservation efforts on areas that are likely to be impacted from development
and land use change. This ecosystem service analysis also lays a framework for future
ecosystem service studies, such as those that examine other ecosystem services or
that involve economic valuation of ecosystem services.
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