Improving Agricultural Sustainability
Daniel Civco ’74 ’76 ’87, professor of geomatics and director of the Center for Land Use Education and Research (CLEAR), is coordinating an interdisciplinary effort to minimize the effect humans have on the natural landscape and promote public policies that will ensure sustainable land use.
Through its outreach activities, CLEAR—a partnership between the Cooperative Extension System and the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment—educates land use practitioners and trains local planners.
CLEAR is a vital resource for planning Connecticut’s agricultural sustainability. The center tracks changes in the state’s landscape; analyzes the effects of forest fragmentation, the loss of farmland and urban sprawl; creates models to study and track flooding and pollution, and much more.
The center’s influence extends far beyond Connecticut though. Pioneered at UConn, the National Nonpoint Education for Municipal Offices (NEMO) Network is now a confederation spanning 31 states dedicated to protecting natural resources through better land use and planning.
“NEMO’s target audience is municipal decision makers,” Civco explains. “Using remote sensing and geographic information systems, we provide information about land and water use. We offer recommendations to inform public policy and promote sustainable public planning.”
“What I do is extremely exciting,” he adds. “We’re not only providing programs that will have a positive influence on the environment, we’re also generating leaders who will make a difference after they graduate.”
