Abstract
Introducing NatureServe Vista Version 1.0 Track: Ecology and Conservation Author(s): Kristin Barker NatureServe Vista is a decision-support system designed to help planners, conservation groups, and local communities better integrate biodiversity information into their land-use and conservation planning processes. A commercial-quality extension to ArcMap 9, newly released NatureServe Vista version 1.0 helps users accumulate, map, and track data about important species and natural habitats and incorporate this information into comprehensive local and regional land-use plans. Specifically, users can (1) visualize the conservation value for individual biodiversity elements, (2) summarize conservation for a set of elements based on a selected ranking system in order to prioritize areas for conservation, and (3) evaluate different planning scenarios in terms of performance against conservation goals to (a) examine element compatibility with proposed land use and (b) assess the efficacy of proposed protection policy. Results, including visualizations, planning documentation, FGDC compliant metadata, and documented assumptions, are available as HTML reports for easy distribution to planners and their audience. Kristin Barker NatureServe Information Division 1101 Wilson Blvd.,, 15th Floor Arlington , VA 22209 US Phone: 703 908-1818 Fax: 703 908-1917 E-mail: kristin_barker@natureserve.org |