Research

Administrative History

In 1966 Governor Rockefeller directed the Office of Planning Coordination to conduct a natural resource inventory of New York State. The result was the Land Use and Natural Resources (LUNR) Inventory.

Between 1967 and 1968 a contractor completed aerial photography of Upstate New York; New York City and Long Island were photographed in 1969-1970. The state also contracted with Cornell University's Center for Aerial Photographic Studies to design the inventory, conduct the photointerpretation (coding), and produce overlay maps from the coded aerial photographs showing land use over the entire state. The inventory used standard 7.5' United States Geological Survey/New York State Department of Transportation quadrangle maps as the base maps for the overlays.

In 1974, the LUNR Inventory was updated for Delaware, Greene, Otsego, Schoharie, Sullivan, Ulster, and Albany (part) counties. The Office of Planning Services (successor to the Office of Planning Coordination) then made plans to refine and update the entire LUNR Inventory. A pilot project for this program, called Land Related Information System (LRIS), was carried out from 1974-1977, resulting in photography and mapping of Broome and Tioga counties.

Starting in 1976, the program was administered by the Economic Development Board. Although planning continued into 1978, no further work was done on LRIS.