Case title
New England Landscape Futures
Develop and map land use scenarios for New England from 2010-2060 using a participatory co-design process with stakeholders and scientists.
The future of New England’s landscape, which is mostly forested and owned by thousands of private land owners, is uncertain due to development pressure, changing forest management practices, and climate change. The New England Landscape Futures Project co-designed four land-use scenarios with more than 200 stakeholders that differ from a business-as-usual future, and simulated each scenario’s land-use from 2010 through 2060. Major themes of the scenarios include settlement patterns, energy use, land protection, and timber harvesting practices. The scenario maps can be used for ecosystem services research and public engagement, and are available in a publicly accessible web tool.
Expected impact: various groups (land-use planners and government entities, scientists, conservation organizations) can use the scenarios to stimulate community dialogue, guide plans and actions, and articulate the case for policies and resources to help achieve positive outcomes for people and the land.
The scenarios were made in:
2015
The scenarios look out to:
2060
Project facts
United States
New England
2015
Submitted by:
Jonathan Thompson
Project leader
October 27, 2020
How to cite this page:
Jonathan Thompson
New England Landscape Futures
10/27/2020
Resources
McBride, M. F., K. F. Lambert, E. S. Huff, K. A. Theoharides, P. Field, and J. R. Thompson. 2017. Increasing the effectiveness of participatory scenario development through codesign. Ecology and Society 22(3):16. doi:10.5751/ES-09386-220316.
Lambert, K. F., M. F. McBride, M. Weiss, J. R. Thompson, K. A. Theoharides, and P. Field. 2018. Voices from the Land: Listening to New Englanders’ Views of the Future. Harvard Forest, Harvard University and the Science Policy Exchange. 24 pp.
Thompson, J.R., J.S. Plisinski, K.F. Lambert, M.J. Duveneck, L. Morreale, M.F. McBride, M.G. MacLean, M. Weiss, and L. Lee. 2020. Spatial simulation of co-designed land-cover change scenarios for New England: Alternative futures and their consequences for conservation priorities. Earth's Future 8(7): e2019EF001348 . DOI: 10.1101/722496.
Project images
Connected Communities by Rick Powell. In: Lambert et al 2018 Voices from the Land
David R. Foster
Growing Global by Rick Powell. In: Lambert et al 2018 Voices from the Land
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