DSL (North Atlantic Region)
Connecticut | Delaware | Massachusetts | Maryland | Maine | New Hampshire | New Jersey | New York | Pennsylvania | Rhode Island | Virginia | Vermont | West Virginia
The Designing Sustainable Landscapes (DSL) project is a landscape conservation project applied to 13 states in the Northeastern United States. The purpose is to provide guidance for strategic habitat conservation by assessing ecological integrity and landscape capability for a suite of representative species across the landscape. Assessments were done for both the current landscape and potential future landscapes, as modified by an urban growth model and models of climate change and sea level rise.
The DSL project provides much of the basis of the conservation planning tools Nature's Network and Connect the Connecticut. The links below provide access to CAPS and other DSL data, clipped for each of the 13 states in the region. The four zip files available for each state include:
- Land cover using a DSL classification (states.dslland)
- Two versions of four Index of Ecological Integrity grids (states.iei)
- Critical Linkages data for dams and road-stream crossings (states.cl)
- Landscape conservation design products (states.design)
There are four Index of Ecological Integrity grids resulting from rescaling the results at four different spatial scales: region-wide (13 states), statewide, HUC6 watershed, and ecoregion. Two versions are provided: a single-color version and a 5-color version. The 5-color version uses different color scales for forest (green), freshwater wetland/aquatic (blue), coastal wetland/aquatic (cyan), shrubland (yellow), and coastal uplands (brown).
For documentation of the DSL project and access to complete, region-wide data, go to https://umassdsl.org.
Connecticut
DSL Land Cover: https://landeco.umass.edu/web/lcc/bystate/dsl_states_dslland_ct.zip
CAPS IEI: https://landeco.umass.edu/web/lcc/bystate/dsl_states_iei_ct.zip
Critical Linkages: https://landeco.umass.edu/web/lcc/bystate/dsl_states_critical_linkages_ct.zip
Landscape Conservation Design: https://landeco.umass.edu/web/lcc/bystate/dsl_states_design_ct.zip
Delaware
DSL Land Cover: https://landeco.umass.edu/web/lcc/bystate/dsl_states_dslland_de.zip
CAPS IEI: https://landeco.umass.edu/web/lcc/bystate/dsl_states_iei_de.zip
Critical Linkages: https://landeco.umass.edu/web/lcc/bystate/dsl_states_critical_linkages_de.zip
Landscape Conservation Design: https://landeco.umass.edu/web/lcc/bystate/dsl_states_design_de.zip
Massachusetts
DSL Land Cover: https://landeco.umass.edu/web/lcc/bystate/dsl_states_dslland_ma.zip
CAPS IEI: https://landeco.umass.edu/web/lcc/bystate/dsl_states_iei_ma.zip
Critical Linkages: https://landeco.umass.edu/web/lcc/bystate/dsl_states_critical_linkages_ma.zip
Landscape Conservation Design: https://landeco.umass.edu/web/lcc/bystate/dsl_states_design_ma.zip
Maryland
DSL Land Cover: https://landeco.umass.edu/web/lcc/bystate/dsl_states_dslland_md.zip
CAPS IEI: https://landeco.umass.edu/web/lcc/bystate/dsl_states_iei_md.zip
Critical Linkages: https://landeco.umass.edu/web/lcc/bystate/dsl_states_critical_linkages_md.zip
Landscape Conservation Design: https://landeco.umass.edu/web/lcc/bystate/dsl_states_design_md.zip
Maine
DSL Land Cover: https://landeco.umass.edu/web/lcc/bystate/dsl_states_dslland_me.zip
CAPS IEI: https://landeco.umass.edu/web/lcc/bystate/dsl_states_iei_me.zip
Critical Linkages: https://landeco.umass.edu/web/lcc/bystate/dsl_states_critical_linkages_me.zip
Landscape Conservation Design: https://landeco.umass.edu/web/lcc/bystate/dsl_states_design_me.zip
New Hampshire
DSL Land Cover: https://landeco.umass.edu/web/lcc/bystate/dsl_states_dslland_nh.zip
CAPS IEI: https://landeco.umass.edu/web/lcc/bystate/dsl_states_iei_nh.zip
Critical Linkages: https://landeco.umass.edu/web/lcc/bystate/dsl_states_critical_linkages_nh.zip
Landscape Conservation Design: https://landeco.umass.edu/web/lcc/bystate/dsl_states_design_nh.zip
New Jersey
DSL Land Cover: https://landeco.umass.edu/web/lcc/bystate/dsl_states_dslland_nj.zip
CAPS IEI: https://landeco.umass.edu/web/lcc/bystate/dsl_states_iei_nj.zip
Critical Linkages: https://landeco.umass.edu/web/lcc/bystate/dsl_states_critical_linkages_nj.zip
Landscape Conservation Design: https://landeco.umass.edu/web/lcc/bystate/dsl_states_design_nj.zip
New York
DSL Land Cover: https://landeco.umass.edu/web/lcc/bystate/dsl_states_dslland_ny.zip
CAPS IEI: https://landeco.umass.edu/web/lcc/bystate/dsl_states_iei_ny.zip
Critical Linkages: https://landeco.umass.edu/web/lcc/bystate/dsl_states_critical_linkages_ny.zip
Landscape Conservation Design: https://landeco.umass.edu/web/lcc/bystate/dsl_states_design_ny.zip
Pennsylvania
DSL Land Cover: https://landeco.umass.edu/web/lcc/bystate/dsl_states_dslland_pa.zip
CAPS IEI: https://landeco.umass.edu/web/lcc/bystate/dsl_states_iei_pa.zip
Critical Linkages: https://landeco.umass.edu/web/lcc/bystate/dsl_states_critical_linkages_pa.zip
Landscape Conservation Design: https://landeco.umass.edu/web/lcc/bystate/dsl_states_design_pa.zip
Rhode Island
DSL Land Cover: https://landeco.umass.edu/web/lcc/bystate/dsl_states_dslland_ri.zip
CAPS IEI: https://landeco.umass.edu/web/lcc/bystate/dsl_states_iei_ri.zip
Critical Linkages: https://landeco.umass.edu/web/lcc/bystate/dsl_states_critical_linkages_ri.zip
Landscape Conservation Design: https://landeco.umass.edu/web/lcc/bystate/dsl_states_design_ri.zip
Virginia
DSL Land Cover: https://landeco.umass.edu/web/lcc/bystate/dsl_states_dslland_va.zip
CAPS IEI: https://landeco.umass.edu/web/lcc/bystate/dsl_states_iei_va.zip
Critical Linkages: https://landeco.umass.edu/web/lcc/bystate/dsl_states_critical_linkages_va.zip
Landscape Conservation Design: https://landeco.umass.edu/web/lcc/bystate/dsl_states_design_va.zip
Vermont
DSL Land Cover: https://landeco.umass.edu/web/lcc/bystate/dsl_states_dslland_vt.zip
CAPS IEI: https://landeco.umass.edu/web/lcc/bystate/dsl_states_iei_vt.zip
Critical Linkages: https://landeco.umass.edu/web/lcc/bystate/dsl_states_critical_linkages_vt.zip
Landscape Conservation Design: https://landeco.umass.edu/web/lcc/bystate/dsl_states_design_vt.zip
West Virginia
DSL Land Cover: https://landeco.umass.edu/web/lcc/bystate/dsl_states_dslland_wv.zip
CAPS IEI: https://landeco.umass.edu/web/lcc/bystate/dsl_states_iei_wv.zip
Critical Linkages: https://landeco.umass.edu/web/lcc/bystate/dsl_states_critical_linkages_wv.zip
Landscape Conservation Design: https://landeco.umass.edu/web/lcc/bystate/dsl_states_design_wv.zip