Social Systems

Human and Social Systems govern the dynamics through which preferences and values are
expressed in individual decisions that collectively shape and transform the landscape.
From regualtory and development codes, such as riparian setback statutes, to the
economic and market forces that guide development choices and landowner preferences,
the CSN targets key information needs on the human and social dynamics of land
transformation decisions.

Market forces and regional economics provide the context through which growth,
development, and relocation alter the landscape. Within these large scale regional
patterns, the human dimensions of decision making are manifested in institutional systems
and cognitive heuristics that shape inidividual choices and expectations.

Cuyahoga River

The Crooked River, infamously known as the river that burned, was the western goal for
Moses Cleveland's 1796 land survey for the Connecticut Land Company, and has been a
defining lens for viewing the geomorphology, transportation, development, and
industrialization of the region carved from the original Connecticut land grant to the Earl
of Warrick's Council of Plymouth Corporation in 1630. Still very much a working river, the
Cuyahoga remains the American gateway to central Lake Erie, supporting bulk transport
for regional industries including cement and steel, via barge traffic of over 11 million tons
of raw materials and finished goods on it's navigable waterways in 2004.

The Cuyahoga was the western limit of the Western Reserve, and the boundary between the
United States and the Indian territories when President Thomas Jefferson sent Lewis and
Clark on their Journey of Discovery. Today, the River defines "Eastside" and "Westside"
cultures and neighborhoods with vastly different character, architecture, history and
cultural values that reinforce neighborhood sense-of-place, and profoundly inform
community values and priorities that shape the region's burgeoning network of
stakeholders as they explore sustainable development and rejuvenation in the Cuyahoga
Valley

Lake Erie Balanced Growth Initiative

Cuyahoga Valley Initiative

Cuyahoga County Planning Commission