AbstractA Living Decision-Support System for Conservation, and an InvitationTrack: Modeling Author A hierarchy of nested modelbuilder models was built to create a prototype decision-support system for open space conservation and management. The prototype is termed BioVision and is designed to meet site valuation and scenaraio evaluation goals of NatureServe Vista while also meeting the goals of Marxan with Zones, i.e. conservation planning that addresses and allocates a variety of land management options in a near optimal solution. BioVision is linked to data pre-processing steps also in modelbuilder, facilitating a "living tool" to provide updated decision-support as conditions change on the biophysical landscape or within the socio-political culturescape. It uses a hierarchical, multi-criteria framework with a return on investment approach embedded. It also incorporates issues of regional context, such as reserve adjacency, target achievement, and habitat connectivity. The hope is that the transparent methods of the model can be transferred to other case-studies and be further developed by a user community. John Gallo John Gallo, Conservation Services 417 Frederick St Santa Cruz, California 95062 United States Phone: 8314273854 E-mail: gallo.ja@gmail.com |