Planners require a thorough assessment of what lies above and below the surface to make informed decisions about land use. They must critically assess the suitability of sites for their needs — from infrastructure and industry to residential and natural areas — while also considering the potential ramifications of plans for an area and impacts on adjacent natural areas and communities.

Mapping is critical to anticipate and mitigate issues with infrastructure and construction projects; evaluate groundwater resources and reduce groundwater contamination risks; understand earthquake, subsidence, and flood hazards; identify valuable mineral and aggregate resources; and protect natural resources, endangered species, and cultural artifacts.

PRI expertise, data, and mapping activities help land use planners better understand the landscape’s geology, water resources, hazards, and vulnerabilities. Whether to ensure sustainable development, maintain the safety of our water supply, find and protect rare species and their habitats, or preserve culturally significant sites, PRI research supports these efforts.

Surface & Subsurface Mapping

Local, state, and federal agencies rely on PRI’s high-resolution digital elevation data for their land use planning and management efforts. Available for every county, this data informs land-use decisions across Illinois.

Lidar — airborne light detection and ranging lidar — technologies are used to gather data for creating products and tools for risk analysis, mapping river forecasts used in flood emergency response for public safety, implementing flood control, floodplain mapping and regulation, planning for dam removal, conducting levee and watershed analyses, delineating building footprints, identifying geological landforms and archaeological features, and evaluating habitats, including tree canopies and individual tree counts and heights.

Comparing lidar data over time can also show land use changes, providing planners and developers with accurate measurements for assessing climate change effects on water and ecosystems.

Water Sustainability

Water availability is a major driver behind land use. Exact knowledge of the below-ground geology and its available water resources makes areas more attractive to developers and industry. Having this information increases their chances of successful well drilling for residential and industrial facilities and ensures sustainable water resource management.

PRI’s advanced mapping, modeling, and expertise in water supply safety and sustainability are vital to planning and development in Illinois. PRI also leads safety training efforts for private well owners and small, rural water operators.

Learn more about PRI’s efforts to ensure future water sustainability and safety.

Hazard Avoidance & Mitigation

Assessing hazard risk is an important step in determining how any tract of land will be used. PRI provides the expertise, research, long-term databases, maps, and other tools needed to understand natural and manmade hazards. Individuals, industries, communities, and agencies use this information to avoid the severe personal and economic losses that can result from hazards like flooding, drought, earthquakes, sinkholes, mine subsidence, and water supply contamination.

Read about PRI’s work in hazard mitigation and threats to public health.

Cultural Resource Preservation

PRI provides a free, publicly available online tool that land managers, developers, and other Illinoisans can use to avoid impacting irreplaceable cultural resources when making land-use decisions. PRI archaeologists also perform hundreds of surveys and dozens of excavations each year ahead of transportation infrastructure projects in Illinois.

PRI’s Illinois Archaeological Predictive Model is a GIS-based resource that draws on prehistoric Native American site locations, landform information, and other environmental and geophysical data to predict the probability of encountering an archaeological site in every 2-acre square of the state. Building on more than 100 years of archeological work, this tool can help guide land managers and developers toward developing areas that are less likely to contain cultural resources, resulting in lower project costs, less mitigation, and more preservation.

PRI archaeologists have worked with the Illinois Department of Transportation for more than 50 years to preserve Illinois’ cultural heritage and facilitate compliance with laws and regulations while maintaining and developing the state’s vital transportation networks. Read more about PRI transportation archaeology work.

Habitat & Wildlife Conservation

PRI research aids planners and land managers as they try to avoid or mitigate the negative effects of development and other land-use decisions on ecosystems and endangered species. PRI scientists also monitor ecosystems to reveal the impacts of both development and conservation efforts across Illinois.

Environmental assessments

PRI biologists conduct environmental assessments across the state, monitoring plants, animals, ecosystems, and habitats, as well as restoration, maintenance, and early detection of environmental threats. PRI provides critical biological expertise necessary to help state agencies like the Illinois Department of Transportation and the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority comply with state and federal environmental regulations, while also preserving habitats and species. Read more about PRI environmental assessments.

Wetlands

PRI biologists and geologists provide critical science about delicate wetland ecosystems in Illinois. Read more about how PRI research supports wetlands conservation and transportation infrastructure development.

Illinois Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program

The Illinois Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) aims to improve water quality and enhance wildlife habitat by offering private landowners financial incentives to take highly erosive agricultural lands out of production. PRI scientists work with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and other partners to provide technical assistance, research, and monitoring needed for the program in areas like forestry and forest management, sediment and nutrient monitoring in waterways, and monitoring aquatic food webs.

Since 2012, PRI’s Stream Ecology Lab scientists have been studying the program’s impact on fish, macroinvertebrate, and mussel populations; water quality; and in-stream habitat quality by conducting annual monitoring throughout the Illinois and Kaskaskia river basins — watersheds that are eligible for CREP enrollment.