Digital Coast

Issue

Officials in the Town of Falmouth, Massachusetts, were concerned about the aesthetic and natural resource impacts of an increasing number of docks and piers on area ponds. These ponds contain several resource conservation areas that include significant quantities of marine life (specifically clams, oysters, and crabs) and habitat (such as eel grass) that could be negatively impacted by dock growth, and the number of docks was beginning to impact viewsheds. Initially, project staff invested significant resources to create visualizations showing the outcome of proposed changes to current dock and pier regulations for one area pond. After seeing the results of this visualization product, town officials wanted to recreate the scenarios for several other ponds located in the Falmouth area. However, the town lacked the resources to do so.

Process

Project staff members found CanVis, a free visualization software that enables users with minimal computer skills to create realistic simulations of coastal changes. With CanVis, they illustrated scenarios for several area ponds with ease, combining existing dock objects, local photography, and Google Earth imagery into simulated illustrations of dock and pier build-outs.

Impact

Using CanVis to illustrate dock and pier impacts in Falmouth saved the town significant amounts of time and money. "CanVis was so simple to use that I started to wonder if I was missing something,” stated Truman Henson, a project review coordinator. These simple images had a powerful impact when shown at planning commission meetings and town meetings, providing local officials with a new set of development scenarios and ultimately leading to the reduction of planned docks and piers in the area.

• Before
• After

The first tab shows a pond in Falmouth, Massachusetts. The CanVis visualization shows what the visual outcome of proposed changes to current dock and pier regulations. Images courtesy of Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management.