Department of Conservation and Recreation
Conserve. Protect. Enjoy.
Department of Conservation and Recreation
The Virginia Department of Historic Resources (http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/) developed the Cultural Resource Preservation Index as a replacement to the original Cultural Model. The index ranks cultural resources according to cultural interest and displays the likelihood of a given location to have conservation value when considering known and evaluated cultural heritage resources. Resources considered protected by a cultural based conservation easement or other means were excluded from this index (those protected features can be found in the VBHR Easements layer). For the purposes of obscuring sensitive boundaries, the Commonwealth of Virginia was divided into a hexagon grid (individual hexagons are ~250 acres in size). This process was done to protect sensitive resources. Not all resources included here are sensitive but the idea was to create a simple and easy to interpret dataset. Resources that have been surveyed in the inventory of the Department of Historic Resources (DHR) were ranked by levels of cultural interest, defined in the attribute field MAX_Preservation_Index as:
3 = Listed as National Historic Landmarks (Highest)
2 = Listed on, contributing to, or eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places/Virginia Landmarks Register
1 = Surveyed sites/properties without formal recommendations of eligibility for listing on the National Register of Historic Places but have potential for eligibility.
This dataset does not include sites/properties that remain unevaluated, nor does it include areas of the commonwealth that have not been surveyed for cultural resources.
Resources with rankings attached were joined to the hexagons and all attribute data was stripped away. The index value for each hex is equal to the highest value of cultural significance contained within it. For example, if three resources overlap within a hexagon with values of 2, 1, and 3 the value of the hexagon will be 3. The index value is not cumulative.
For more information about the Cultural Model, please contact Dominic Bascone at Dominic.Bascone@dhr.virginia.gov or 804-482-6101.
Page last updated 5/18.
