Application Guidelines and Procedures for Use in Preparation of the Statewide Mapping and

Screening Report (1) Objective. The objective of the Statewide Mapping and Screening Report required to be issued under Section 20 of the Act is to exclude at the outset of the site selection process any areas of the Commonwealth that are obviously unable to satisfy the site selection criteria contained in 310 CMR 43.00. The purpose of 310 CMR 43.44 is to provide guidance on how, at a minimum, the requirements for a technically superior site pursuant to 310 CMR 43.41 are to be interpreted and applied for the purposes of this report. (2) Date Collection and Evaluation. (a) The Statewide Mapping and Screening Report should identify those locations the Board determines are obviously unsuitable as a superior site. The Statewide Mapping and Screening Report should be prepared on the basis of data reasonably available on the date the Board votes to initiate site selection, pursuant to M.G.L. c. 111H, § 17 , as may be obtained from public agencies, private not-for-profit land conservation associations and the published open literature. (b) Lack of uniform coverage of the Commonwealth with respect to certain data should not be a cause to fail to use data that are available. (c) The data collection and presentation should be limited to factors relevant to the exclusion criteria. The factors to be applied may reflect land areas that are ofsufficient size and extent to be mapped on a statewide basis. (d) The specific mapping accuracy should be commensurate withthe map scales employed and the accuracy of the data sets. As a general matter the scale of the map should be consistent with the scale at which the data were entered. The map scales employed should be in the range of 1:100,000 to 1:250,000. (e) The Board shall not be responsible to verify the accuracy of data provided by federal and state agencies but it should identify the sources of all the data and discuss the estimated quality of data and the sensitivity of the results to data uncertainty and data gaps. The Board should specify that the boundaries of included areas are defined with an accuracy that is commensurate with the map scales and data sets used and may be subject to revision on the basis of more detailed characterization.