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Track: Natural Resources and Conservation
Blair Csuti
University of Idaho
2600 SE 98th Avenue Suite100
Portland, OR 97206
Telephone: 503-231-6179
Fax: 503-231-6195
E-mail: blair@manatee.geo.orst.edu
Patrick Kennelly, S. Mark Meyers, Kevin Sahr
Current Status of Biodiversity Indicators Using GIS
Defining Issue: Described as a crisis, the loss of biodiversity cannot be quantified nor spatial solutions proposed without GIS analysis of spatial biological resource datasets. GIS Solution: GIS coverages of current land cover, based on Landsat imagery, and predicted distribution of terrestrial vertebrate species, based on known occurrence and relationships to land cover types, are analyzed relative to the location of existing natural areas to describe their current representation in these areas and propose land management strategies promoting future maintenance of these elements of biodiversity. Methodology: The Biological Resources Division of the U.S. Geological Survey as part of its mission develops and disseminates information on the distribution of biodiversity elements mapped at the landscape scale. Analyses of these data layers may contribute to private and public agency understanding of and planning for future changes in the status of elements of biodiversity resulting from human modification
of the environment. The status of individual and collective elements of biodiversity, the location of optimal natural area networks, the effects of scale on results of these analyses, and cross-level effects of protection strategies for different major classes of biodiversity are all under investigation. Software: These multidisciplinary studies involve a variety of software applications including a variety of image processing software packages (often SPECTUM or ERDAS), GIS software (ArcInfo), IBM Integer Programming software, C++ programming language, and Advanced Revelation information system software.
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