Abstract

Employing an Automated Design Module (ADM) in Wildlife Corridor Design
Track: Geodesign
Authors: Ryan Perkl

Conservation planners continue to face challenges in understanding and quantifying the negative ecological effects of landscape fragmentation on species populations. While significant methodological and technological advancements have led to more analytically robust assessments of landscape connectivity and corridor delineations, the end result of these efforts is often the demarcation of areas void of any insight as to their physical design. We address these shortcomings by employing a GeoDesign framework coupled with a newly developed, data-driven, Automated Design Module (ADM) which pulls from native species vegetation libraries and integrates landscape patterns known to facilitate wildlife movements, mitigate edge effects, and increase a corridors connectivity function. Further, the ADM allows for corridor design at the landscape-scale which is often impractical via traditional design methods. This presentation focuses on the development of the ADM and showcases modeling efforts for the Tucson metropolitan area and noncontiguous portions of Saguaro National Park in southern Arizona.