Select Sites
The Select Sites tool enables users to filter by different site characteristics related to the following categories: ownership, land cover, proximity to drainage systems (where available), equity considerations, and sensitive land.
Move through the tabs below for more information about each category of filters
To narrow the parcels in the tool's database to sites that might be suitable for Green Infrastructure, begin by selecting the municipality of interest.
Filter parcel type by privately owned, publicly owned, or right-of-way (ROW) segment. Note: City of Boston does not have right-of-way segments.
Filter by specific owners by searching and selecting each relevant result.
Filter by use description in parcel database (may vary by town, check for duplicate descriptions)
To filter for equity goals and community visibility select one of the five yes/no drop downs about access, proximity to community infrastructure, and environmental conditions.
To proactively site projects in locations with the greatest potential to advance equity and in places that can most benefit from it, this tool offers the following criteria:
Park Access: Select sites that fall within the Trust for Public Land’s ParkServe “Priority Areas”: more than a ten minute walk from a park or open space. Source: Trust for Public Land
Environmental Justice Communities: Select parcels that fall in a block group defined as an Environmental Justice Population by the state's Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs' (EEA). Source: MassGIS EJ Populations
Low tree canopy: Select sites that are located in a census block group in the bottom 40th percentile for tree canopy coverage within the municipality. Source: MassGIS 2016 Land Cover/Land Use.
High urban heat island effect: Select sites within a census block that scores in the top 40% of blocks in the municipality for high heat index. Source: MAPC Land Surface Temperature index
Community co-location: Select sites within a town center of in a 5-minute walk radius from a school, community center, library, senior center, MBTA station, or bus stop.
Impervious land cover and soil hydrology are both critical for finding suitable sites for BMPs. Select parcels based on land cover with the following criteria:
Percent Imperviousness: Percentage of land on site that is impervious (either building roofs or impervious cover like asphalt or concrete).
Example: Selecting “20% imperviousness” will only show sites that are covered by more than 20% of rooftop of impervious land cover.
Acreage of Imperviousness: Set a minimum value for total acreage of imperviousness on site.
Example: Inputting a value of “0.25” will only show sites that have 0.25 acres or more of impervious land cover
Soil hydrology score: Indicates runoff or infiltration potential based on the average of the site's soil scores. Soil hydrology is calculated through a scoring methodology that assigns values 0-3 to grades of soil. Soils with the highest infiltration potential are "A" type soils with a value of 3, "B" receives a value of 2, "C" receives 1, and anything else with high runoff (low infiltration) potential is 0.
Example: Selecting "2.5" will only show ites with a hydrology score greater than 2.5
There are several conditions that may imply a lack of suitability for installing a BMP. The following allow users to select only sites that do not overlap with sensitive land.
Wetlands: Eliminate sites if any part of the site overlaps with MassDEP Wetlands (2005).
Activity Use Limitations: Eliminate sites if there is an AUL located on site (MassDEP AUL 2023)
Zone II Wellhead Protection Areas: Eliminate sites if any part of the site overlaps with Zone II Wellhead Proteciton Areas (MassDEP WPA 2023)
Intermediate Wellhead Protection Areas: Eliminate sites if any part of the site overlaps with Intermediate WPA.
Watershed: Eliminate sites located within one or more watersheds, based on NRCS HUC Basins 10-digit (2005)
For select municipalities, MAPC received data layers for the local drainage network. For these municipalities, sites can be selected based on:
Proximity to drainage network: Distance (in feet) to any part of the stormwater drainage network (pipes or catch basins). A value of 0 means some part of the drainage network is located on-site.
Example: Selecting 50 ft will display all parcels with pipes or catch basins 50 ft or less feet away from the parcel.
Proximity to catch basins: Distance (in feet) to catch basins only. A value of 0 means catch basin is located on-site.
Example: Selecting 0 ft will show all the parcels with a catch basin on site
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