UPDE Municipal Support Tool

The UPDE Municipal Support Tool is a mapping application previously known as UPDE Decision Support Tool. In 1978, Congress designated the Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River (UPDE) as a unit of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System. Forming part of the Pennsylvania (PA)--New York (NY) border, the Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River flows approximately 73.3 river miles across 2 states, 5 counties, and 15 municipalities. As a Congressionally-designated area, UPDE “must be managed for the benefit and enjoyment of present and future generations.” As the vast majority of the Upper Delaware is privately owned, federal oversight of the land creates an intricate framework of management. The River Management Plan (established 1986) is the governing document for land use decisions and resource management within the river corridor. It limits federal land (NPS) ownership to just ≈0.2% of the total area in the river corridor. Intersected by five counties and fifteen local municipalities, UPDE is a complex network of local laws, ordinances, and regulations—all of which should conform to the River Management Plan and its associated Land and Water Use Guidelines. Pursuant to P.L. 95-625 Section 704 (November 10, 1978), any proposed project within (or near) the river corridor must be reviewed by the National Park Service and Upper Delaware Council for substantial conformance to the River Management Plan. The Upper Delaware Council (UDC) requested Technical Assistance from the NPS in 2014 in creating a tool to assist their organization and UPDE municipalities in the project review process. This web-based map tool comes as the result of that request. It leverages local, county, state, and federal datasets to provide local municipalities and the UDC information for their use in project review and resource management within the river corridor. While not replacing the current process of substantial conformance review, this GIS application is part of a larger system to support resource managers and land use planners in the decision-making process. Development of this mapping tool was made possible through a collaboration with the Shippensburg University Center for Land Use and Sustainability (CLUS), who provided geotechnical support to the NPS throughout the data collection, validation, and system development stages.

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