Future Assessment Areas are areas designated in certain action alternatives that are subject to future assessment for suitability for renewable energy development or conservation designation. The knowledge about the value of these areas for renewable energy development is ambiguous. The current known value of these areas for ecological conservation is moderate to low; therefore, the areas are not allocated to either development or conservation and are assigned to future assessment and decisions.

DRECP Variance Lands are areas identified in certain DRECP action alternatives that represent portions of the BLM Solar Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) Variance Lands and other BLM lands identified through the LUPA as screened for the DRECP using BLM DRECP screening criteria (Section II.3.2.1.2), and identified Future Assessment Areas (FAAs). These lands are potentially available for renewable energy development, but projects on variance lands are not covered in the DRECP.

This dataset was derived from the original DRECP integrative alternatives provided by Dudek. The geometry was simplified slightly in order to improve online performance. The integrated alternative shapefiles represent the proposed Plan-wide action alternatives, as described in Volume II of the Public Draft DRECP (2014). The original DRECP integrated alternative shapefiles can be downloaded directly from the DRECP website at the following URL: http://www.drecp.org/draftdrecp/files/GIS/