Cuyahoga County is the most populous and most urbanized of Ohio’s 88 counties.

The County encompasses nearly 460 square miles with the following land uses (2019 data): Residential 53%; Parks & Open Space 15%; Industrial 9%; Commercial 6%; Institutional 5%; Transportation & Utilities 3%; Vacant 9%.

Approximately 78% of land in Cuyahoga County is fully developed and only 10% of it is considered protected open space. The remaining 12% is land that does not fall within one of the developed land cover or protected land categories. It could be forested, agricultural, fallow, or another type of vacant undeveloped land.

Greenprint: Origins, Intent and Advancements

The Cuyahoga County Planning Commission (County Planning) developed both the Cuyahoga County Greenspace Plan and Greenprint in 2002. At the time, greenspace, its ecological function and public access to it for enjoyment was limited by fragmented ownership or conventional planning that often emphasized the built environment. Growing recognition of the value of green infrastructure, nature as a health and recreational amenity, and concerns for climate resiliency identified the need for an easy-to-use mapping tool to support planners and community leaders in their work.

The initial, 2002 Greenprint Viewer functioned as a web-based inventory of maps. Available through the County Planning Commission website, the Greenprint remained a static map featuring 2002 data and its applicability was limited as a downloadable PDF file.

In 2015 (and again in 2020) advances in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology allowed County Planning to repurpose the original Greenprint as a “live” document: a fully-interactive mapping tool that can be updated with information that reflects current conditions in the built and natural environments.

This newest (2023) version of the Greenprint Viewer, now known as the Greenprint Explorer, incorporates ESRI’s ArcGIS Online, featuring the ‘Experience Builder’ application development environment.

These Web pages contain the interactive Greenprint Explorer, the Technical Manual that explains the functions and data of the Explorer platform, and the Greenprint Guidebook.

Each chapter in the Greenprint Guidebook provides a description of the various layers available in the Greenprint Explorer. They provide overviews of the region’s natural features, the rationale for their importance and value and recommend land use practices for communities and landowners. Each chapter ends with links to a wide range of valuable resources and additional information on the chapter topics.

Glossary of Acronyms

The following acronyms may be used throughout the Greenprint documents.

Top photo by Jason Cohn, courtesy of the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy