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Preliminary Resource Inventory
Location: San Luis Obispo County, California
LSA conducted a comprehensive Preliminary Resource Inventory for a large United States utility company for their 12,000-acre power plant property in San Luis Obispo County, California. Currently, the power plant is centrally located on the property and provides electrical power for over 2.5 million customers in California. The majority of the property is in open space, which includes over 11 miles of coastline. The company was interested in understanding the development potential of the property if the plant is decommissioned. The site varies in topography, soils, geology, and biological habitats. In addition, there are several significant Native American cultural sites within the property boundary. LSA conducted field studies and retrieved data from existing sources. Individual resource categories, including but not limited to slope, soils, solar aspect, watersheds, terrestrial and marine biological habitats, and viewsheds, were digitized and mapped.
A full range of existing resources was collected and analyzed to better ascertain overall value for protection and conservation. Areas with fewer resources or poor-quality resources were valued less than areas where there was a concentration of resources or highly valued resources. The result is a layer that combines the quantity and quality of environmental resources for the area.
Values were assigned to individual components within each resource category as well as the categories being assessed regarding their ability to accommodate a change in land use or development. The resulting product was a report containing maps accompanied by narrative sections. The report concluded with a cumulative resource assessment of the development opportunities and constraints for the property. In using several models in ArcGIS, the cumulative constraints results illustrate where high- and low-sensitive areas are located. This allows for better management of the land because it highlights areas that contain a nexus of environmental resources, further focusing efforts of preservation and maintenance.
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