Post date: Apr 11, 2014 2:16:36 PM
Tracking down data can be frustrating. The past couple of weeks I've been trying to map existing natural gas infrastructure as a baseline for work on reducing future impacts from future development. You might think that someone, somewhere, has gas company parcels along with pad locations and road and pipeline routes. Turns out, you probably need to be a gas company to get this data. The best I've found, and I am impressed, is in Bradford County, PA. They actually have mapped pipelines and pad locations by company.
You cant get this just anywhere. Unfortunately, this is still missing some important data (i.e. development boundaries), and it's only for one county. I want all of PA, and I want many companies.
As an alternative, I may be able to use land surface parcels as proxies for existing development boundaries. TNC has access to ParcelPoint, which is a big dataset with land parcels. It's not ideal, because it doesnt actually show me existing development, but I could still use those to model development where it is actually occurring.
Meanwhile, dissertation time ticks away...