Getting to know ArcGIS

1
Getting to know ArcGIS
2
GIS Data StructureFor NatureServe Vista

• Vector data
• Points, lines, polygons and attributes

3
Vector Analysis

• Operation based
• GeoProcessing Tools in ArcGIS
• -Useful for data prep not
• core to Vista functionality
• -Buffer
• -Union
• -Clip
• -Intersect

4
GIS Data StructureFor NatureServe Vista

• Raster data
• Grid cells contain one value per cell

5
Raster Analysis

• Cell based functions
• Titled Spatial Analyst tools in ArcGIS

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ArcGIS
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ArcMap
NatureServe Toolbar
Catalog and ToolBox
Add Data
Identify
Zoom Tools
Set Reference Scale
Select Features
Select Elements
New, Open, Save, and Print
Toggle Editor Toolbar
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ArcCatalog
Details, Thumbnails, etc
Map a directory
Data Type Icons
Geometry and Table
View, create and edit
Same as ArcMap
Metadata toolbar
Name and data Type
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ArcToolbox
Toolbox Folder
Secondary Toolbox Folder
Tool - Launch Wizard
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Maintaining and Updating a ProjectusingVers
ion 1.3
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Some Jargon

• Conservation Elements the features you wish to
  conserve representing biodiversity other
  conservation values
• Element viability/integrity requirements
  representing the site or population needs for
  proper condition and minimum size
• Element conservation goals representing the
  requirements for metapopulation persistence or
  ecosystem functioning in the planning region
• Compatibility representing analysis of current
  or alternative futures to meet element
  requirements while maximizing options to meet
  other land use objectives

12
Scoping the Project

• Big picture question
• Conservation specifics
• Project environment
• Resources

13
Pre paring the Database

• Hardware/software
• Computer appropriate to project size
• ArcGIS with Spatial Analyst installed
• NatureServe Vista installed
• Project properties

14
Populating the Database

• Element Data
• Species
• Ecosystem
• Other
• Element Properties
• Element Condition
• Data Confidence
• Map Context
• Element Category

15
Data Preprocessing

• Data prep is critical for Vista analyses
• Landscape condition layer
• Occurrence versus distribution layers
• Data derived from raster layers / memory
• Shapefiles with Z values

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Landscape ConditionLayer

• Landscape Integrity Indices
• Combines land use, roads, infrastructure,
  pollution, etc.
• Model weights effects, adds distance effect
• Can be element-specific

Greater Yellowstone Area
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Distributions
Occurrences
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Raster to Vector and Shapefiles with Z values
Vectorizing raster layers without simplifying can
lead to large shapefiles and memory problems.
Any shapefile created with Z values must have
them manually removed before introducing the
shapefile into Vista.
19
Selecting Conservation Elements

• Selecting the elements for conservation attention
  should reflect
• Laws what must be protected
• Values what does the community, stakeholders,
  decision makers want to protect
• Scientific concepts such as coarse and fine
  filter assessment, ecosystem function, etc.

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Conservation ElementsRepresenting Composition,
Structure, and Function of Regional Landscapes
Fine Filter Elements Focus of land
trust acquisition and easements

• Species
• Imperiled, Declining, Vulnerable, Endemic
• Management Indicator Species
• Ecological Communities
• Rare plant communities
• Rare aquatic communities
• Unique environments
• Ecosystems
• Groups of communities interconnected on land and
  waterscapes
• Natural pattern and process at local scales
  useful for management and monitoring
• Already identified priority areas
• Non-Biological Elements
• Scenic views
• Archaeological cultural sites
• Valuable agriculture soils
• Natural hazard zones

Coarse Filter Elements Focus of land
trust collaboration w/government industry
21
Other Element Selection Considerations

• Current state of distribution data and
  conservation knowledge
• Relative importance of the element in influencing
  decision making
• Ability of a better mapped/known/loved element to
  act as a surrogate for one or more little known
  element(s)
• Ability of the planning region to offer
  meaningful conservation for the element

22
Where Does the Data Come From?

• Spatial distribution maps of each element come
  from
• Heritage data
• land cover maps
• modeled distributions
• museum collections
• local information sources
• Each element occurrence has
• A viability/integrity score
• A confidence score

Ecological systems
Species and community occurrences
Modeled distributions
23
Element Conservation Requirements

• Weight a simple expression of relative
  importance. Multiple weightings possible e.g.,
• Imperilment (Vista default)
• Social/economic value
• Legal requirements
• Minimum occurrence size based on
• Species behavior, e.g., foraging area required
• Population dynamics/demographics
• Disturbance regime
• Best guess based on apparently healthy existing
  populations

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Variability in Nature
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Core Conservation Concepts

• Elements have individual conservation
  requirements and responses to
• Development
• Management
• Disturbance
• disease, etc.
• The process of evaluating current condition,
  threats from anticipated future uses and
  disturbances, and options for achieving
  conservation should be sensitive to these
  individual element needs and sensitivities.

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Trade-offComplexity for Practicality

• We tend to substitute coarse pattern analysis
  and rules of thumb for
• Population dynamics over space and time
• Interspecific interactions (pollination,
  competition, herbivory, predation)
• Patch dynamics of disturbances structure
• Short- and long-distance migrations
• Needs for long term migration due to climate
  change
• Potential for diversification of species to
  subspecies and to new species
• Adapted from Pressey
• But these complexities can be incorporated
  through additional analyses

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Example of Complex Interactions
County Govt
Logging Industry

County Zoning

-



Land Developers
EPA Fire Policy
State Fire Policy
Agency Timber Policy
2nd Home Owners






BMPs
-



2nd Home Development
Fire Suppression
Timber Harvest

-
-
-
Loss of Habitat
Loss of Adequate Area for Maintenance of
Metapopulation
Degradation of Suitable Longleaf Habitat
-
/- are rules of thumb in a complex model
Red-cockaded Woodpeckers
Courtesy Rick Schneider
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Element Conservation Requirements

• Compatibility
• The list of land uses that will retain element
  viability when occurring in the same location.
• Generally uses rules of thumb such as
  urbanization causes release of house cats which
  are incompatible with a ground nesting bird
  species.

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Element Conservation Requirements

• Conservation goals
• A quantity of the elements distribution required
  to meet laws, policies, or values that is of
  sufficient size patches falling in compatible
  land use backed by reliable policies
• Can be a percentage or integer value
• Can have multiple goal sets, e.g., preferred goal
  and minimum goal

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Importing Elements

• Element Value Layers
• Raster layer
• One per element
• Interactive reports
• Input to subsequent Vista analyses

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Hands-On

• In this hands-on section you will have a chance
  to complete the following
• Set Project Properties
• Enter Element Viability/Integrity
• Enter Confidence Scores
• 4. Assign Categories
• 5. Create Map Context layers

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Conservation Value Summaries

• Examining Element Data
• Across the Planning Area

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What is a CVS?

• Composite score of EVLs across the planning area
• Visualize important conservation concepts like
  richness, endemism, integrity
• Flexible analysismethods

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Components of a CVS

• Required
• Element Conservation Value layers (EVLs)
• Optional
• Filter
• Weighting
• Site Layer
• Map Context

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Typical CVS Questions

• Where are the most important areas for
  conservation?
• Which locations have high element richness?
• What locations have low or high data confidence?
• What areas have low or high element viability?

36

• Hands On

• In this hands-on section we will answer the
  following questions
• Where are areas with high element richness?
• Where are the highest value areas for
  conservation?
• Through answering these questions we will become
  familiar with the following Vista operations
• Creating Filters
• Creating Weighting Systems
• Building Conservation Value Summaries
• Using Site Explorer

37
Define Scenario

• Describing land use and policy across the panning
  area

38
Scenarios

• Developed using land use data and policy data
• Paint picture of the project area
• Joined with element data to create Scenario
  Evaluations

39
Scenario Concepts

• Complete scenarios
• The more completely a scenario represents what is
  or could be going on throughout the planning
  area, the more accurate an assessment youll get
  and the better planning you can do
• Stepwise scenarios and assessments
• Baseline of current actual land use
• Baseline of current allowable land use and or
  trends
• Known proposals for land use plan changes, policy
  changes, individual large projects, etc.

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Building the Scenario

• Translator for every layer
• Single and multi-value
• Precedence
• Land use only
• Policy only

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Scenario Output
Land Use
Policy Type
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Hands On
In this hands-on section we will answer the
following question How are land use and policy
distributed across the planning area? While
answering this question we will become familiar
with the following Vista operations 1. Creating
Single Value Translators 2. Creating Multi-Value
Translators 3. Working with Scenario Layer
Precedence
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Conservation Planning Practices

• Conceptual approach to Vista design
• Multi-party collaborative planning framework
• Tool interoperability

44
A conceptual framework to integrate conservation
planning

• Conservation is a land use supporting public
  values like any other land use
• The key to rectifying conflicts among uses is to
  reveal where uses must occur and what is the
  envelope of options where they can occur
• Collaborative land use planning will allow
  testing of options that identify where the
  objectives of each use can be met without
  foreclosing the ability of any one to be met

45
Envelope of options
Regional habitat connection
Forest of sufficient size for interior bird
species
Regional hwy corridor
Infrastructure served Economic devpmt area
Prime ag soils
Rare plant population
46
Core Conservation Concepts

• Conservation planning and implementation need to
  happen at multiple scales to account for such
  things as
• wide ranging species
• natural disturbance regimes
• Species with patchy distribution,and
• ecosystem processes and succession.

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But Scales Must Be Linked!

• How to get from here

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Core Conservation Concepts

• Conservation planning must be dynamic to account
  for
• Changing threats and opportunities
• Improved knowledge about biodiversity and
  response to threats
• Changing policies and economics
• New discoveries, surveys, mapping, etc

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Dynamic Ranking of Conservation Value
Conservation Planning Vision vs Process?
Courtesy UCSB
50
Three Analytical Approaches
Increasing data requirements, complexity,
integration
Define High Value Areas
Reduce Conflict
Create Solutions
Select important values (elements
characteristics)
Import baseline and evaluate scenarios
Select elements, set conservation goals and
design rules
Overlay maps of elements
Identify conflicts and opportunities
Integrate data on threats and cost
Identify general places to conserve or avoid
development
Reduce conflict/generate mitigation plans
Generate optimal solutions for meeting goals
Conservation Strategies
51
Data Expert Knowledge Inputs
Intermediate Processes Products
Outputs
How Vista Works
52
ScenarioEvaluations

• Examining Land Use and
• Policy Effects on Element
• Conservation Goals

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What is a Scenario Evaluation
Land use conflict map
Policy conflict map

• Scenario Evaluations read the Scenario Import and
  Element Compatibilities to create rasters showing
  element / land use and element / policy conflicts.

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Scenario Evaluation

• Designate reliable policy
• types
• Compares element
• response to
• conservation goals
• Allows use of other
• Vista tools

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Typical Scenario Evaluation Questions

• Can I meet my conservation goals with this
  scenario?
• Where do I have conflicts and opportunities for
  conservation?
• What are the element and occurrence level effects
  on goals and viability?

56
Hands On
In this hands-on section we will answer the
following questions Are conservation goals
being met by current land use and policy? What
impact will a new residential development project
have on element conservation goals? While
answering this question we will become familiar
with the following Vista operations 1.
Populating the Element compatibility tab 2.
Creating Goal Sets 3. Reading Scenario Evaluation
reports
57
Site Explorer

• Examining Conservation Properties of Specified
  Areas for Existing Analyses

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Applying Site Explorer

• Site Explorer can be used with
• 1. Conservation Value Summaries
• 2. Scenario Evaluations

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Site Explorer Query Operations

• Use as a query or ID tool
• - As such it provides myriad data, for example
• Number of occurrences
• Area of the occurrences
• Percent and number of compatible and/or
  protected occurrences
• Percent and area of compatible and/or protected
  occurrences

60
Site Explorer Overrides

• Analyze alternatives
• Apply different land use or policies to parcels
• All metrics updated on the fly
• Interactive reports reflect alternatives
• Easily revert to original analysis

61
Site Explorer Export Capability

• Export alternatives
• Alternatives are saved as .shp files for import
  into subsequent scenarios
• Land use and policy stored as attributes
• Provides permanent retention and analysis of
  planning alternatives

62
How to use Site Explorer
Options dialog allows selection by
attribute Define which element properties are
displayed using Options dialog
63
Hands On

• In this hands-on section we will answer the
  following question
• With a new residential development in place, how
  might we change land use and/or policy in
  non-development areas to support our element
  conservation goals?
• While answering this question we will become
  familiar with the following Vista operations
• Using Site Explorer for general Scenario
  Evaluation inquiries
• Customizing selection criteria and display fields
  in Site Explorer
• Using Overrides, export and import functions
• Interpreting Site Explorer results

64
Puerto Rico Conservation Trust

• Objectives
• Biodiversity conservation
• Cooperative planning and implementation among
  island institutions

Conflict (brown) and compatibility (blue) with
land use and policy
Conflict (brown) and compatibility (blue) with
proposed initial conservation areas
65
Analysis of Conservation and Economic Value of
Stands for Potlatch Corporation, AR

• Objective Identify stands that are
• free of conflict for economic forest products
  management
• free of conflict for conservation management
• in conflict and require further analysis and
  negotiation.

Green shades forest products opportunityBlue
shades conservation opportunityYellow-red
shades conflict areas

• Study by NatureServe in Cooperation with Potlatch
  Corporation and the Arkansas Natural Heritage
  Commission

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MARXAN and SPOT
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Intro to MARXAN SPOT

• What
• Best bang for your buck approach
• Find areas that best meet your goals using
• Price
• Fragmentation
• Penalties
• Your Goals
• Some relatively complicated math
• How
• Both perform basically same function using almost
  identical methods
• Who Developed
• SPOT TNC
• MARXAN Australia

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The Basic Formula

• We want to find the lowest
• SolutionCost
• Sum (Cost of each selected analysis unit)
• Sum BLM(Cost of all exposed boundaries)
• Sum (Shortfall penalties for each element with an
  unmet goal)

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Exposed Boundaries Example
From SPOT Documentation
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Boundary Length Modifier (BLM), Iterations and
Runs

• The BLM alters the impact of boundary
  fragmentation
• Not always straight forward value
• The number of iterations and runs can be quite
  important
• More is always better (but a bit slower)
• Reading the documentation is still recommended

71
Penalties

• Penalties are values which you assign to each
  goal that is applied when that goal is not met
• This allows you to set some relative importance
  to each element

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A Very Small Bit About the Math

• Uses Simulated Annealing
• Avoids local lowest solutions as compared to
  finding absolute lowest solution
• Iterative process (lots of iterations)
• Requires a bit of patience generating inputs if
  large number of elements or analysis units

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Much More to These Products

• Both are powerful
• More functionality described on websites
• Acquire tools at respective websites
• MARXAN
• SPOT

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Vista in a DSS ToolkitTransportation Example
Other Sector Tools
Tools for Conservation Experts
Conservation Optimization Tools MARXAN, SPOT
Transportation Planning Quantm
Vista Framework Tool
Ecological Process Tools Connectivity,
restoration modeling
Biodiversity Tools Element Distribution Modeling
Tools
Land Use Planning CommunityViz
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Vista CommunityViz IntegrationEvaluation of
baseline scenario by Endangered Species Act status
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