Abstract

Ecological Assessment, Mapping, and Prioritization of the Huron-Clinton Metroparks
Track: Environmental Management
Authors: Yi Hou

The Huron-Clinton Metropolitan Authority's Natural Resource Department(NRD) is responsible for the management and conservation of undeveloped areas within 13 southeastern Michigan's Metroparks- roughly 80% of the nearly 24,000 total acres. A GIS-based Multi-Criteria Evaluation (MCE) model is used in the development of a practical, effective, and informed protocol for assessing ecological quality; thereby enabling the NRD to target management efforts towards natural areas of maximum conservation benefit. MCE is commonly used in ecological assessments because it is adaptable and therefore allows the natural-area manager to change the criteria and corresponding weights according to different objectives.
The MCE approach includes eight criteria: distance to river, distance to wetland, distance to road, slope, soil type, pre-settlement vegetation type, and MNFI's biological rarity index. Weighted linear combination is used to create a single index from different criteria. All the criteria are standardized and transformed to the same scale for the final suitability analysis.