The Natural Resource Assessment (NRA) is the third step in the Natural Resource-based Planning process. In this step, information collected in the inventory is used to rank and prioritize areas for open space protection or investigation of other local natural resource issues.

THE KEY STEPS IN NATURAL RESOURCE-BASED PLANNING ARE:

1. Identify community issues and goals

Metropolitan Council: Aquatic Resource Assessment For the Twin Cities

2. Conduct a natural resource inventory
3. Conduct an assessment of your NRI
4. Develop a plan
5. Implement the plan
6. Monitor your community's progress

The assessment process will vary depending upon community goals, issues, and features identified during the NRI. A NRA can range from a simple visual analysis to detect patterns on a map to a complex rain water runoff model (this generally requires a GIS). A visual NRA is a qualitative approach that works well with Hand-Drawn NRI, but can also be used with a GIS-Based NRI.


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Example visual NRA from Carlton County.

Dakota County: Farmland & Natural Area Program

An advanced NRA can be used if your community requires a more quantitative approach and a number of model assessments are available. The table below depicts an example of an ecological assessment used to prioritize protection of natural areas in Dakota County. Using this type of NRA required a detailed map of land cover and the use of a sophisticated GIS. The Prioritized Natural Areas NRA resulted in the map shown below.

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Washington County: Stillwater Firewise Community Assessment

"Firewise: Minnesota" is a DNR program that uses a NRA to determine wildfire risk. Communities growing into landscapes of forest and wetlands are at increasing risk of catastrophic loss of life and property to wildfire. Such losses are readily preventable if the community adopts and implements a "firewise" community plan, including surrounding homes with defensible space free of fireprone vegetation. Communities who do not know where their wildland fire risk exists can undertake a quick, broad survey of their risk based on the amount of defensible space surrounding individual homes. Here, aerial photographs are used to give a defensible space rating on a scale of 1 to 5 based on vegetative clearance around the home. Using a GIS, ratings are then accumulated into a risk density map where the areas of greatest risk are shown in yellow and orange. With this information, the local fire department can efficiently target their risk mitigation strategies and work with the landowners to reduce the danger. The project shown was done by trained high school students.


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Firewise Risk Assessment in Washington County.

The next steps in the Natural Resource-Based Planning Process are to use the NRA to develop and implement your plan using a variety of tools.