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Track: Natural Resources and Conservation
Max Moritz
University of California, Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-4060
Telephone: 805-893-7815
Fax: 805-893-3146
E-mail: maxm@geog.ucsb.edu
David Stoms, Mark Borchert, Frank Davis
A Proposed Protocol for Identifying Potential Research Natural Areas with Gap Analysis Data
Defining Issue: The U.S. Forest Service attempts to establish Research Natural Areas (RNAs) to represent vegetation communities, yet there is no formal protocol for selecting the best sites. GIS Solution: We have developed a procedure using several ArcInfo functions (both raster and vector) to identify, characterize, and select potential RNA sites. Methodology: The land cover and land management GIS coverages from the Gap Analysis Program (GAP) are used to identify the set of sites with the vegetation community for all types that occur primarily on national forest lands. Each of these sites is characterized with regard to its environmental properties such as elevation and precipitation. All sites are then rated for their suitability as potential RNAs as a function of the spatial extent of the target type in a watershed and its representation of the type regionally. An optimization model is applied to select the most efficient set of highly suitable sites to represent all types. The protocol is
illustrated with an example for four mixed evergreen forest types in the Los Padres National Forest of the central coast of California. Software: This application used a combination of ARC GRID functions to do the query, characterization, and optimization analysis.
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