The network of stone walls that criss-crosses the state of Rhode Island is an enduring reminder of human ingenuity, labor, and perseverance. These features, included under the term “stone domain,” are important to the fields of environmental conservation, ecology, and historical preservation. To better understand these networks, and the technologies employed in their delineation, a refined methodology was developed and applied to high-resolution Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data.

The Rhode Island Stone Wall Mapping Project (RISWMP) was completed in February 2025. The goal of taking a comprehensive inventory of Rhode Island's stone walls was achieved. This project, born out of my Master's degree research, was performed by myself over a period of 14 months and is the first comprehensive study of its kind in Rhode Island.

I am currently working with Dr. Jason Parent (URI Dept. Natural Resources Science) to produce a manuscript for publication. The dataset is publicly available from the Rhode Island Geographic Information System website. For a full-page application, please follow this link to one that I have created.