Mary-Kate Kane NRS 509. GIS and Remote Sensing in Conservation Planning

Transcription

1 Mary-Kate Kane NRS 509 GIS and Remote Sensing in Conservation Planning Since the dawn of mankind, humans have relied on the natural world for survival. However, to the detriment of the environment, human development has often worked against the natural world. Natural resources, landscapes, and flora and fauna have become increasingly threatened. As a response to the exploitation of natural resources, an environmental consciousness has evolved over time. The environmental movement has come in waves and has included a range of different motivations. The concept of conservation evolved out of the need to conserve natural values in environments of competing uses. Conservation has come to encompass many objectives including protecting a single species and their habitat, encouraging rich biodiversity, and supporting harmonious relationships between human and environment needs. The distribution of plant and animal species does not recognize man-made boundaries; therefore conservation planning is an important facet of land use planning. Conservation planning aims to identify lands with natural resource value and prioritize those lands with the most value to be protected and managed into the future. Natural resource values may include water supply, flood storage, productive agricultural soils, important wildlife habitat, and scenic view viewsheds to name a few. The general concept of planning refers to outlining objectives and goals, gathering and analyzing information, and evaluating alternative policies or projects to meet the objectives. Informed conservation planning requires good data, scientific methods, and expertise; therefore, GIS and remote sensing can assist in making wise decisions throughout the planning process. GIS can also assist in communicating across disciplines and with various stakeholders. Remote sensing provides us with high resolution information depending on the scale being studied. For areas that would be otherwise difficult to study, we have detailed information due to remote sensing. GIS and remote sensing together can assist in making practical land use decisions with a range of stakeholders with different motivations and objectives. In this paper, the various ways in which GIS and remote sensing may be used in conservation planning will be discussed using several examples from peer-reviewed journals. The most useful analytical procedures, data models, and sources of data will be discussed. Many conservation planning efforts rely on information about the habitat of important animal species. GIS can be a valuable tool in habitat modeling. Multi-criteria habitat suitability modeling has been used extensively in GIS practices. A habitat is where an animal lives; it includes the biotic and abiotic qualities of the area that supports that particular species of animal. By creating a habitat model, one could asses the quality of an area as a habitat for a particular species and determine the most important areas to protect in order for that species to thrive. Through the use of GIS, habitat suitability models use raster-based layers such as land use, land cover, elevation, topography, human disturbance (including housing density and road density).there are two major ways to build these models: literature review and empirical/ statistical techniques. Literature review requires a biologist to assign weights to each habitat factor. Suitability scores for all habitat factors are combined to form a single habitat suitability map with a suitability score for each pixel. There are several different methods of combining these layers, such as arithmetic (additive) mean and geometric mean models. Empirical models are probably more accurate than literature-review based models, but they require gathering a good set of field observations for every species in the linkage area, which can take a lot of time. In an article by Store and Kangas, GIS was used with both empirical and literature review based models. Habitat requirements of a species of fungus, Skeletocutis odora, were shown as map layers and each map layer represented one criterion. GIS was used to manage, combine and display the criterion data and also as a tool for producing new data. The objective of the study was to provide support for the choice of the most suitable old-forest areas for the

2 fungus species in an area of Finland. This particular species of fungus is one of the most important boreal old-growth forest indicator species. The habitat required by this fungus is dependent on vegetation (the fungus grows on a particular spruce) and soil characteristics: soil fertility, slope direction, soil moisture (wetness index, soil texture), density of growing stock, stem volume of spruce, age of spruce. Each habitat factor was given a weight based on their relative importance and an overlay analysis was performed. A habitat suitability index was calculated for each cell. A final suitability map was created with a range of most suitable to unsuitable. There are many additional conservation planning tools available that utilize remote sensing and GIS. An article by Baldwin et al. provides a range of tools that focus on five major themes of conservation: 1. Reserve selection, 2. Habitat connectivity, 3. Species distribution and viability modeling, 4. Threats, and 5. Climate forecasting. Corridor Designer, Circuitscape and CommunityViz are some examples mentioned in the article. They can be used in GIS or in conjunction with GIS. In addition to these tools, simpler analytical procedures that can be used in GIS are the clip tool, the buffer tool, and Boolean query. These procedures help to prioritize lands that would be prime conservation areas. Another way that GIS can be used in conservation planning is in measuring the amount of biodiversity in a particular area. Distribution of certain flora and fauna in an area is important when making land use decisions. Having scientific evidence and visuals to back up conservation proposals can help illustrate the objectives of conservationists when working with a diverse group of stakeholders. GIS maps may be able to illustrate where biodiversity hotspots are. This can help with a proactive approach to conservation planning. A paper by Ruddock et al. describes how GIS can be used to understand the distribution of flora and fauna in relation to the physical qualities of an area in order to assist conservation organizations in understanding how ecosystems may change as the climate changes. In this study, several data layers were used to create Ecological Land Units (ELUs) to identify properties that will be important in protecting biodiversity now and in the future. It is uncertain what particular species will occupy what types of habitats as the climate changes, but ELUs can help identify landscapes that will support rich biodiversity regardless of the changes in climatic conditions. This particular study focuses on Rhode Island and uses South Kingstown as a focus area to determine target properties for conservation. The use of ELUs can help conservation organizations assess the potential values of an area and create conservation targets of varying priority. Remote sensing can be used as a valuable tool in establishing conservation lands and then managing the areas as well. In a paper by Wiens et al. three case studies are described that demonstrate the usefulness of remote sensing in conservation planning for biodiversity. Remote sensing has been used to assess the effectiveness of prescribed burns in an area of Florida that benefits from occasional fires (invasive species management). Another case study mentioned using remote sensing to assess flood regimes and identify areas of off floodplain forests. These areas would be otherwise difficult to access, but still need careful managing; therefore remote sensing is a very useful strategy. In Maleki et al., they use GIS and remote sensing to gain information on a wetland on the Iran-Afghanistan border. The temporal resolution of the Landsat 8 was particularly useful in this study since the wetland experienced many changes throughout the year. The habitats of wetland birds were examined using the Landsat 8 imagery. Remote sensing can aid in the understanding of how an area changes throughout a year or over the course of many years. Remote sensing can also be used to verify data are accurate. For instance in a study by Gorokhovich et al., coastal properties were being prioritized for conservation potential and orthophotography proved a helpful way to verify data. The parcel data from the towns and counties were not as reliable as Gorokhovich et al. needed them to be. The orthophotography is updated more frequently and provides high resolution information. In conclusion, GIS and remote sensing have proven to be extremely useful tools in conservation planning. However, it must be emphasized that while they can be quite useful, they are not a silver bullet for answering difficult questions about the environment. The data must be accurate in order to

3 produce reliable results. As mentioned by Gorokhovich, et al., the results are only as good as the data used. Likewise, the data must be up to date. GIS and remote sensing are constantly being improved and more complex programs, procedures, and models are being developed. Professionals in GIS and in remote sensing may be able to stay up with these changes, but those who are not experts may find it difficult to find the time, money, and resources to understand all the capabilities of the programs. Therefore, as many of the articles mentioned, collaboration between disciplines is essential in order to solve complex conservation planning and land use questions and make informed decisions that will greatly impact landscapes into the future. Also, hopefully GIS and remote sensing will become more cost- effective in the years to come. Professionals in the conservation planning field and land use planning field should have a working knowledge of GIS and remote sensing and should be able to communicate with GIS and remote sensing professionals. It would be beneficial to continue to have opportunities to train and educate conservation planners to help them stay up to date with changes such as new data and new software. It seems as though GIS and remote sensing will become increasingly necessary in this line of work and creative ways of using GIS will surface (such as participatory GIS described by Brown and Weber) and become common tools in conservation planning.

4 Annotated Bibliography Baldwin, R., R. Scherzinger, D. Lipscomb, M. Mockrin, and S. Stein Planning for land use and conservation: assessing GIS-based conservation software for land use planning. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station In this paper, Baldwin et al. describe conservation planning tools that the land use planning community may find useful when making critical decisions. A variety of planning and ecological software exists, often in the form of mapping software compatible with ArcGIS. Baldwin et al. focus on five major themes within conservation planning tools: 1) reserve selection, 2) habitat connectivity, 3) species distribution and viability modeling, 4) threats, and 5) climate forecasting. The software within these categories could be useful in making land use decisions; however, the fact that the software is technically complex and constantly being improved, it is difficult for professional planners to be proficient in many of the mapping tools available. This is mainly due to the amount of time it takes to be trained as well as the costs of training and the costs of the software. Baldwin et al. describe a survey conducted to gauge professional planners familiarity with GIS tools. The 18 conservation planning tools mentioned in this study include: Corridor Designer, Circuitscape, and CommunityViz. Baldwin et al. conclude that while planners are generally interested in learning how to use conservation planning tools and have some working knowledge of GIS, they may not have the capability to do use the more complex conservation planning tools available; therefore, there is a strong need to establish collaborations between land use planners, ecologists, biologists, conservation planning modeling experts and public land managers. Brown, Greg and Delene Weber A place-based approach to conservation management using public participation GIS (PPGIS). Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 56:4, In this paper, Brown and Weber describe New Zealand s Department of Conservation s place- based approach to implementing regional Conservation Management Strategies. This is a different way of approaching land conservation, which is commonly top-down and uses deductive reasoning to make decisions. This place-based approach uses inductive, public participation GIS methods to delineate places of significant value based on natural and historic environments that the public are particularly attached to. Very simply, place refers to a geographic location; however, place also refers to individually and socially constructed spaces full of contextual meanings. Brown and Weber describe place attachment as the extent to which an individual values or identifies with a particular natural setting. Place attachment is influenced by sociodemographic characteristics, activity involvement, experience preferences and landscape types. Public participation GIS seeks to democratize spatial analysis to produce knowledge of place. Through the use of maps created online for the public to view and add points of particular interest, the Department of Conservation was able to establish hot spots of conservation value. They were then able to focus their attention on certain areas that held conservation values that included aesthetic and natural heritage values for tourism, community and recreational uses. This is an interesting and unique way to use GIS in community and conservation planning.

5 Gorokhovich, Yuri and Andrei Voustianiouk Prioritization of coastal properties for conservation in New York State. Journal of Coastal Conservation. 14: Gorokhovich, et al. begin by describing the importance of conservation of coastal lands in reducing the amount of pollution that will find its way into ocean and estuaries; the importance of conservation in retaining natural areas; and the importance of conservation of coastal lands in protecting ecological communities. The case study in this paper is Long Island Sound. A conservation goal in this location (and often the goal of other areas) is to establish a listing of existing undeveloped properties and their prioritization for natural resource conservation and outdoor recreation. Gorokhovich et al. use GIS to assign conservation priority scores to unprotected, undeveloped parcels greater than 5 acres within the Long Island Sound coastal area. This use of GIS analysis can be useful; however Gorokhovich et al. warn that the results of any analysis is only as good as the quality of the data used. In this particular study, land parcel data (tax maps) were used, but since different management of land records and various GIS technical abilities of towns supplying the record data exist, the data needed to first be verified. Digital orthophotography was used to accomplish the verification of the data, which proved to be very time consuming. Also, setting priorities and conservation goals can be subjective since it depends on what entity is doing the conserving. Using a multi-criteria GIS analysis can help to create a more quantitative analysis of an issue that may otherwise be very subjective. A helpful outcome of the study described in this paper is the ability to visualize contiguous parcels which then allowed the focus to be on conserving clusters rather than separate parcels of land. Store, Ron and Jyrki Kangas Integrating spatial multi-criteria evaluation and expert knowledge for GIS-based habitat suitability modelling. Landscape and Urban Planning. 55:2; Store and Kangas use the combination of GIS data processing, spatial analysis and decision analysis techniques in a study to understand habitat suitability evaluation over large areas. The case study was in a forested area of Finland where a species of fungus, Skeletocutis odora was found. In order to find the most suitable habitat areas for this species, Store and Kangas used both empirical and literature review based models. The habitat requirements were represented by map layers; each map layer represented one criterion of S. odora. GIS was used to manage, combine and display the criterion data. The objective of the study was to determine the most suitable old-forest areas for the fungus species in an area of Finland because this particular species of fungus is one of the most important boreal old-growth forest indicator species. The habitat required by this fungus is dependent on vegetation (the fungus grows on a particular spruce) and soil characteristics and each habitat factor was given a weight based on their relative importance and an overlay analysis was performed. A habitat suitability index was calculated for each cell. A final suitability map was created with a range of most suitable to unsuitable. This study seemed quite complicated but demonstrated how habitat suitability modelling, multi-criteria evaluation, sensitivity analysis and GIS can be valuable in understanding a particular species and the landscape in which it resides.

6 Maleki, Saeideh. Ali Reza Soffianian, Saeid Soltani Koupaei, Sassan Saatchi, Saeid Pourmanafi, Farid Sheikholeslam Habitat mapping as a tool for water birds conservation planning in an arid zone wetland: The case study Hamun wetland. Ecological Engineering. Volume 95; In this paper, Maleki et al. describe the importance of prioritization of management strategies in ecosystem conservation and restoration. The focus of the study is water bird conservation planning in arid zone wetland areas; these areas are particularly sensitive environments and are vulnerable to human activities and climate variations. The case study within this paper is the Hamun Wetland in the Sistan Plain on the Iran-Afghanistan border. This is a very dry area and the amount of water in this wetland varies drastically during the year. In this study, a spatial conservation prioritization approach based on remote sensing and GIS was developed to identify areas of this particular wetland which may require special protective measures. This was based on the breeding season of water birds. Landsat 8 (OLI) data was used which provides a repeat cycle of 18 days. The short repeat cycles of the satellite images was appropriate for monitoring a rapidly changing ecosystem such as the Hamun wetland. Comparison of habitat suitability at the nesting time of water birds with other dates in the breeding season of these birds was used as an index for conservation goals. A habitat suitability model that selected a combination of factors describing habitat conditions was created. This study was a prime example of how Landsat 8 can be used in understanding an area that experiences landscape changes and may otherwise be difficult to access and study. Phua, Mui-How and Mitsuhiro Minowa A GIS-based multi-criteria decision making approach to forest conservation planning at a landscape scale: a case study in the Kinabalu Area, Sabah, Malaysia. Landscape and Urban Planning. 71: 2-4; Phua and Minowa present a GIS based multi-criteria decision making approach for forest conservation planning at a landscape scale in a particular area of Malaysia: Kinabalu Area, Sabah, Malaysia. The GIS based multi-criteria approach enables decision makers to evaluate the priorities of conserving forest areas based on a set of preferences and indicators established. This helps the decision process be less subjective. The study reveals that riparian vegetation is an important aspect to forest conservation and regulations to protect riparian zones should be improved. Criteria and indicators were evaluated using GIS, remote sensing, field data, and literature. Weights were assigned by decision makers. Phua and Minowa described the challenges they ran into in their study such as the lack of reliable data and the financial means to obtain data. They also stressed the importance of integrating decision-making groups into the forest conservation planning process. Ruddock, Kevin, P.V. August, C. Damon, C. LaBash, P. Rubinoff and D. Robadue Conservation in the Context of Climate Change: Practical Guidelines for Land Protection at Local Scales. PLoS ONE 8(11):e Ruddock, et al. describe the dilemma that many conservation groups encounter in the face of a changing climate: as ecosystems change as a result of the changing climate, how will conservation programs continue to achieve the goal of conserving biodiversity? While plant communities will likely change, the geophysical basis of the landscapes will remain the same for the most part. This includes the landform, elevation, and soil. Ruddock, et al. describe how geo-physically diverse landscapes support diverse ecological communities; however, which species are within these communities may change in the future. This study used high spatial resolution measure of geophysical complexity based on Ecological

7 Land Units (ELUs). ELUs describe the combination of soils, geology, landform and elevation of a particular area and the plant communities that inhabit that area. Usually there is a relationship between these biotic and abiotic factors of a particular area. In this report, a down-scaled, high spatial resolution measure of geophysical complexity was performed using ELUs. It was found that existing landscapes with high ELU richness had a greater variety of ecological community types and high species richness of flora. A spatial representation was created for local conservation practitioners to use and to assist in setting conservation targets that will support diverse floras and faunas despite the impacts of climate change. This study was a scaled down approach to the global ELU mapping efforts. Wiens, John, Robert Sutter, Mark Anderson, Jon Blanchard, Analie Barnett, Naikoa Aguilar- Amuchastegui, Chadwick Avery, Laine Stephen Selecting and conserving lands for biodiversity: The role of remote sensing. Remote Sensing of Environment Vol. 113(7), pp In this paper, Wiens et al. highlight the importance of conservation as a means to protect biological diversity and they use remote sensing to select areas of rich biodiversity. Since some areas may be large, not easily accessible, subject to change, and sensitive to the surrounding landscape, Wiens et al. describe remote sensing as a valuable tool in establishing and managing protected areas for conservation goals. In this paper, three case studies are described to demonstrate the usefulness of remote sensing in conservation work. The first is the Connecticut River Watershed where remote sensing is used to assess flood regimes and identify areas of off floodplain forests. The second case study is the Eglin Air Force Base in Florida where remote sensing is used to assess the effectiveness of management strategies to restore fire to the longleaf pine sandhills ecosystem, control invasive species, and prioritize annual prescribed burns. The third case study is in the Eastern U.S. forests where remote sensing is being used to evaluate the ecological condition and changes within properties that would otherwise be difficult to access. The case studies also bring up issues related to remote sensing. For instance, it is critical to identify the appropriate spatial and temporal resolution and remote sensing should be used in conjunction with ground monitoring and data collection whenever possible. The more that remote sensing is relied upon, the stronger the need for sound ecological interpretation. Too much technological data can sometimes be unhelpful and it could quickly become too complex for most ecologists to interpret; therefore, Wiens et al. describe the importance of collaboration. Wiens et al. also mention the importance of keeping remote sensing as a cost effective tool.