Using visual assessment as a foundation for greenway planning in the St. Lawrence River Valley

Abstract

The growth of the ‘greenway’ as a fundamental planning concept has provided guidance for many communities locally and around the world. In the St. Lawrence River Valley, the idea is providing a common physical and cultural reference for the management of landscapes in communities along a 100 mile international corridor. Over the past 10 years, the College of Environmental Science and Forestry of the State University of New York has worked with the St. Lawrence-Eastern Ontario Commission to examine the unique visual and scenic resources of the region as the foundation for establishing a greenway tracing the St. Lawrence River. Although the idea of a greenway in the St. Lawrence River Valley is not new or unusual, the inventory and assessment of visual or scenic linear resources as a foundation is a departure from typical practice, and an experiment in defensible and rational planning. As a major summer tourism destination, the region is well aware of the critical value of its scenic resources. In our effort to identify and assess various vital resources for planning, we found an indicator in the visual nature of the landscape—both as a resource in and of itself, and as a reflection of the underlying values held by local communities for natural and cultural resources. This paper describes, as a case study, the process used to identify and assess visual and scenic resources in the region, and the use of the resulting database to initiate delineation of the proposed greenway. A discussion of the rationale and significance of the method is presented, including comments on the direction and progress in the region today.