Livability is the sum of the factors that add up to a community's quality of life. As shown in the diagram at right, the factors fall in three categories: (1) SOCIAL (e.g., recreational opportunities), (2) ECONOMIC (e.g., home values), (3) ENVIRONMENTAL (e.g., air and water quality).

A 2009 book says the answer is Retrofitting Suburbia, weaving things like walkability and sustainability back into the suburban fabric. That includes conserving vacant land and underused parking lots and improving them for other uses, like parks, gardens, trails, and natural areas. That's the mission of NeighborSpace.

How do we ensure our conservation actions address the SOCIAL, ECONOMIC, and ENVIRONMENTAL factors that contribute to a community's quality of life? We worked with the National Park Service and our stakeholders to develop a conservation model, shown at right, that could be incorporated into a type of software called a Geographic Information System (GIS).

Our stakeholders not only helped us pick the objectives of the model, but also had a hand in ranking their relative importance. That's why the pie wedges in the diagram at right are unequal in size. Using this GIS model, we can overlay this tool on a map of communities inside the URDL and prioritize the acquisition of land based on whether it will improve the social, economic, and/or environmental aspects of livability.