Human Uses and Human Use Limits (Structures)

Human Uses and Human Use Limits are used for tracking physical man-made alterations to the records like trails, buildings, hunting, impermeable surfaces, or agricultural activity, as well as the limitations towards those uses as defined in the interest (usually these limitations are spelled out in easements). Uses can count against Limits so that you can track how much of their allowable uses the landowner has exhausted. These work items differ from, but are often related to, Tracked Rights and Tracked Right Activities, which are instead for tracking the requests, approvals, and denials related to permitted and unpermitted activity.

For example, if a landowner is allowed 6000 square feet of impermeable surfaces, and they expand their impermeable surface footprint by 1500 sq. ft. when they construct a new driveway, you would enter the new limitation of 6000 sq. ft., then enter the driveway as a use. The limit would then display that 1500/6000 sq. ft. had been used, and point you towards the driveway use work item. You could then add another use work item when they build a new garage that counts towards the same limit, etc.

Adding a Human Use

From the Work tab of a record, click on 'Add Work'. Choose 'Human Use', then enter the Name and Type of the use. Note that you can add additional types via Settings > List Items > Work Items (must be an Administrator to access settings)

You'll be taken to the new use record, where you can add further details about the Use. Categories allows you to further categorize the use. For example you could specify whether a trail was public or private. Installed on and removed on allow you to track the dates that the use was added or removed. Size limitation allows you to select available limits. You can add an available limitation by returning to the work tab and adding a new Human Use Limit. Summary is where you can add a written description of the item.

If you select an available size limitation, then the size of the structure will appear as an available field. Note that this size will not be counted against the limit until you mark the status as 'Active' (or whatever you have set to indicate completion). You could also add a custom status or designate another status as indicating completion in Settings > List Items > Work Items.

As with other Work Items, you can also add additional data like communications, documents, expenses, form data, tasks, funding disbursals, and map data. You can also link the use to other Work Items like Issues or Site Visits.

Adding Human Use Limits

Human Use Limits allow you to specify how much of something is allowed per the terms of the interest. It can be very useful to add limits to records prior to the actual construction of the uses that apply towards them in order to help stewardship staff be aware of them, but they can also be added on an ad-hoc basis. Examples of Human Use Limits include square feet of impermeable surface or acres of agriculture. To add a new Human Use Limit, go to the Work tab of the record and select 'Add Work'. Select 'Human Use Limit' and then enter the name of the Limit and click 'OK'.

You can then enter additional details like Started on date, Ended on date. The actual limit should be entered in Size Limit, and Size Unit lets you specify which unit you're using. Available Units are Square Feet, Acres, Hectares, and Square Meters.

Once you've entered the limit, you can add a new use directly from the limit record. You can also link an existing use to the limit by navigating to the use and selecting the limit in the size limitation field. Note that the use will not count against the limit until you've selected the correct status.