| Services Directory | Login |
| Home > GICores03_05_All_Cores |
| JSON | WMTS | API Reference |
This layer was created as part of Esri’s Green Infrastructure Initiative and is one of five newly generated companion datasets that can be used for Green Infrastructure (GI) planning at national, regional, and more local scales. If used together, these layers should have corresponding date-based suffixes (YYYYMMDD). The corresponding layer names are: Intact Habitat Cores, Habitat Connectors, Habitat Fragments, Habitat Cost Surface, and Intact Habitat Cores by Betweenness. These Esri derived data, and additional data central to GI planning from other authoritative sources, are also available as Map Packages for each U.S. State and can be downloaded from the Green Infrastructure Data Gallery.
This layer represents modeled Intact Habitat Cores, or minimally disturbed natural areas at least 100 acres in size and greater than 200 meters wide. Esri created these data following a methodology outlined by the Green Infrastructure Center Inc. These data were generated using 2011 National Land Cover Data. Cores were derived from all “natural” land cover classes and excluded all “developed” and “agricultural” classes including crop, hay and pasture lands. The resulting cores were tested for size and width requirements (at least 100 acres in size and greater than 200 meters wide) and then converted into unique polygons. This process resulted in the generation of over 550,000 cores.
Cores were then overlaid with a diverse assortment of physiographic, biologic and hydrographic layers to populate each core with attributes (53 in total) related to the landscape characteristics found within. These data were also compiled to compute a “core quality index”, or score related to the perceived ecological value of each core, to provide users with additional insight related to the importance of each core when compared to all others. See this map image layer for a version that includes popups and ability to query the data.
The source data used to derive this attribution is as follows:
Number of endemic
species (Mammals, Fish, Reptiles, Amphibians, Trees)
(Jenkins, Clinton N., et. al, (April 21, 2015) US protected
lands mismatch biodiversity priorities, PNAS vol.112, no. 16)
Priority Index areas: Endemic species, small home range size and low protection status. (Jenkins, Clinton N., et. al, (April 21, 2015) US protected lands mismatch biodiversity priorities, PNAS vol.112, no. 16)
Unique ecological systems (based upon work by Aycrig, Jocelyn L, et. al. (2013) Representation of Ecological Systems within the Protected Areas Network of the Continental United States. PLos One 8(1):e54689). New data constructed by Esri staff, using TNC Ecological Regions as summary areas.
Ecologically relevant landforms (Theobald DM, Harrison-Atlas D, Monahan WB, Albano CM (2015) Ecologically-Relevant Maps of Landforms and Physiographic Diversity for Climate Adaptation Planning. PLoS ONE 10(12): e0143619. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0143619 ,
Local Landforms (produced 3/2016) by Deniz Basaran and Charlie Frye, Esri, 30 m* resolution. "Improved Hammond’s Landform Classification and Method for Global 250-m Elevation Data" by Karagulle, Deniz; Frye, Charlie; Sayre, Roger; Breyer, Sean; Aniello, Peter; Vaughan, Randy; Wright, Dawn, has been successfully submitted online and is presently being given consideration for publication in Transactions in GIS. *We scaled the neighborhood windows from the 250-meter method described in the paper, and then applied that to 30-meter data in the U.S.
National Elevation Dataset, USGS, 30 m resolution
NWI – National Wetlands Inventory “ Classification of Wetlands and Deepwater Habitats of the United States”. U.S. Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, Washington, DC. FWS/OBS-79/31 , U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Division of Habitat and Resource Conservation (prepared 10/2015)
NLCD 2011 – National LandCover Database 2011 (downloaded 1/2016) Homer, C.G., et. al. 2015,Completion of the 2011 National Land Cover Database for the conterminous United States-Representing a decade of land cover change information. Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing, v. 81, no. 5, p. 345-354
NHDPlusV2 Received from Charlie Frye, Esri 3/2016. Produced by the EPA with support from the USGS.
gSSURGO –Soil Survey Staff, Natural Resources Conservation Service, United States Department of Agriculture. Web Soil Survey. Accessed 3/2016, 30 m resolution
GAP Level 3 Ecological System Boundaries (downloaded 4/ 2016) NOAA CCAP Coastal Change Analysis Program Regional Land Cover and Change–downloaded by state (3/2016) from: C-CAP FTP Tool, see Description of this 30 m resolution, 2010 edition of data
NHD USGS National Hydrography Dataset
TNC Terrestrial Ecoregions (downloaded 3/2016)
Evaluation:
The creation of a national core quality index is a very ambitious objective, given the extreme variability in ecosystem conditions across the United States. The additional attributes were intended to provide flexibility in accommodating regional or local environmental differences across the U.S.
Scripts for constructing local cores and scoring them using the Green Infrastructure Center’s methodology are available on Esri's Green Infrastructure web site.
Two general approaches were used in the developing core quality index values. The first (default) follows the guidance of the Green Infrastructure Center’s scoring approach developed for the southeastern US where size of the core is the primary determinant of quality. The second; Bio-Weights puts more emphasis on bio-diversity and uniqueness ecosystem type and de-emphasizes slightly the importance of core size. This is to compensate for the very large intact core habitat areas in the west and southwest which also have comparatively low biodiversity values.
Scoring values:
Default Weights
0.4, # Acres0.1, # THICKNESS0.05, # TOPOGRAPHIC DIVERSITY (Standard Deviation)0.1, # Biodiversity Priority Index (SPECIES RICHNESS in GIC original version)0.05, # PERCENTAGE WETLAND COVER0.03, # Ecological Land Unit – Shannon-Weaver Index (SOIL VARIETY in GIC original version)0.02, # COMPACTNESS RATIO (AREA RELATIVE TO THE AREA OF A CIRCLE WITH THE SAME PERIMETER LENGTH)0.1, # STREAM DENSITY (LINEAR FEET/ACRE)0.05, # Ecological System Redundancy (RARE/THREATENED/ENDANGERED SPECIES ABUNDANCE (Number of occurrences) in GIC original version) 0.1, # Endemic Species Max (RARE/THREATENED/ENDANGERED SPECIES DIVERSITY (Number of unique species in a core) in GIC original version)
Bio-Weights
0.2, # Acres0.1, # THICKNESS0.05, # TOPOGRAPHIC DIVERSITY (Standard Deviation)0.25, # Biodiversity Priority Index (SPECIES RICHNESS in GIC original version)0.05, # PERCENTAGE WETLAND COVER0.03, # Ecological Land Unit – Shannon-Weaver Index (SOIL VARIETY in GIC original version)0.02, # COMPACTNESS RATIO (AREA RELATIVE TO THE AREA OF A CIRCLE WITH THE SAME PERIMETER LENGTH)0.1, # STREAM DENSITY (LINEAR FEET/ACRE)0.1, # Ecological System Redundancy (RARE/THREATENED/ENDANGERED SPECIES ABUNDANCE (Number of occurrences) in GIC original version) 0.1, # Endemic Species Max (RARE/THREATENED/ENDANGERED SPECIES DIVERSITY (Number of unique species in a core) in GIC original version)
Source MXD: GICores_03_05_All_Cores.mxd
This layer was created as part of Esri’s Green Infrastructure Initiative and is one of five newly generated companion datasets that can be used for Green Infrastructure (GI) planning at national, regional, and more local scales. If used together, these layers should have corresponding date-based suffixes (YYYYMMDD). The corresponding layer names are: Intact Habitat Cores, Habitat Connectors, Habitat Fragments, Habitat Cost Surface, and Intact Habitat Cores by Betweenness. These Esri derived data, and additional data central to GI planning from other authoritative sources, are also available as Map Packages for each U.S. State and can be downloaded from the Green Infrastructure Data Gallery.
This layer represents modeled Intact Habitat Cores, or minimally disturbed natural areas at least 100 acres in size and greater than 200 meters wide. Esri created these data following a methodology outlined by the Green Infrastructure Center Inc. These data were generated using 2011 National Land Cover Data. Cores were derived from all “natural” land cover classes and excluded all “developed” and “agricultural” classes including crop, hay and pasture lands. The resulting cores were tested for size and width requirements (at least 100 acres in size and greater than 200 meters wide) and then converted into unique polygons. This process resulted in the generation of over 550,000 cores.
Cores were then overlaid with a diverse assortment of physiographic, biologic and hydrographic layers to populate each core with attributes (53 in total) related to the landscape characteristics found within. These data were also compiled to compute a “core quality index”, or score related to the perceived ecological value of each core, to provide users with additional insight related to the importance of each core when compared to all others. See this map image layer for a version that includes popups and ability to query the data.
The source data used to derive this attribution is as follows:
Number of endemic
species (Mammals, Fish, Reptiles, Amphibians, Trees)
(Jenkins, Clinton N., et. al, (April 21, 2015) US protected
lands mismatch biodiversity priorities, PNAS vol.112, no. 16)
Priority Index areas: Endemic species, small home range size and low protection status. (Jenkins, Clinton N., et. al, (April 21, 2015) US protected lands mismatch biodiversity priorities, PNAS vol.112, no. 16)
Unique ecological systems (based upon work by Aycrig, Jocelyn L, et. al. (2013) Representation of Ecological Systems within the Protected Areas Network of the Continental United States. PLos One 8(1):e54689). New data constructed by Esri staff, using TNC Ecological Regions as summary areas.
Ecologically relevant landforms (Theobald DM, Harrison-Atlas D, Monahan WB, Albano CM (2015) Ecologically-Relevant Maps of Landforms and Physiographic Diversity for Climate Adaptation Planning. PLoS ONE 10(12): e0143619. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0143619 ,
Local Landforms (produced 3/2016) by Deniz Basaran and Charlie Frye, Esri, 30 m* resolution. "Improved Hammond’s Landform Classification and Method for Global 250-m Elevation Data" by Karagulle, Deniz; Frye, Charlie; Sayre, Roger; Breyer, Sean; Aniello, Peter; Vaughan, Randy; Wright, Dawn, has been successfully submitted online and is presently being given consideration for publication in Transactions in GIS. *We scaled the neighborhood windows from the 250-meter method described in the paper, and then applied that to 30-meter data in the U.S.
National Elevation Dataset, USGS, 30 m resolution
NWI – National Wetlands Inventory “ Classification of Wetlands and Deepwater Habitats of the United States”. U.S. Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, Washington, DC. FWS/OBS-79/31 , U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Division of Habitat and Resource Conservation (prepared 10/2015)
NLCD 2011 – National LandCover Database 2011 (downloaded 1/2016) Homer, C.G., et. al. 2015,Completion of the 2011 National Land Cover Database for the conterminous United States-Representing a decade of land cover change information. Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing, v. 81, no. 5, p. 345-354
NHDPlusV2 Received from Charlie Frye, Esri 3/2016. Produced by the EPA with support from the USGS.
gSSURGO –Soil Survey Staff, Natural Resources Conservation Service, United States Department of Agriculture. Web Soil Survey. Accessed 3/2016, 30 m resolution
GAP Level 3 Ecological System Boundaries (downloaded 4/ 2016) NOAA CCAP Coastal Change Analysis Program Regional Land Cover and Change–downloaded by state (3/2016) from: C-CAP FTP Tool, see Description of this 30 m resolution, 2010 edition of data
NHD USGS National Hydrography Dataset
TNC Terrestrial Ecoregions (downloaded 3/2016)
Evaluation:
The creation of a national core quality index is a very ambitious objective, given the extreme variability in ecosystem conditions across the United States. The additional attributes were intended to provide flexibility in accommodating regional or local environmental differences across the U.S.
Scripts for constructing local cores and scoring them using the Green Infrastructure Center’s methodology are available on Esri's Green Infrastructure web site.
Two general approaches were used in the developing core quality index values. The first (default) follows the guidance of the Green Infrastructure Center’s scoring approach developed for the southeastern US where size of the core is the primary determinant of quality. The second; Bio-Weights puts more emphasis on bio-diversity and uniqueness ecosystem type and de-emphasizes slightly the importance of core size. This is to compensate for the very large intact core habitat areas in the west and southwest which also have comparatively low biodiversity values.
Scoring values:
Default Weights
0.4, # Acres0.1, # THICKNESS0.05, # TOPOGRAPHIC DIVERSITY (Standard Deviation)0.1, # Biodiversity Priority Index (SPECIES RICHNESS in GIC original version)0.05, # PERCENTAGE WETLAND COVER0.03, # Ecological Land Unit – Shannon-Weaver Index (SOIL VARIETY in GIC original version)0.02, # COMPACTNESS RATIO (AREA RELATIVE TO THE AREA OF A CIRCLE WITH THE SAME PERIMETER LENGTH)0.1, # STREAM DENSITY (LINEAR FEET/ACRE)0.05, # Ecological System Redundancy (RARE/THREATENED/ENDANGERED SPECIES ABUNDANCE (Number of occurrences) in GIC original version) 0.1, # Endemic Species Max (RARE/THREATENED/ENDANGERED SPECIES DIVERSITY (Number of unique species in a core) in GIC original version)
Bio-Weights
0.2, # Acres0.1, # THICKNESS0.05, # TOPOGRAPHIC DIVERSITY (Standard Deviation)0.25, # Biodiversity Priority Index (SPECIES RICHNESS in GIC original version)0.05, # PERCENTAGE WETLAND COVER0.03, # Ecological Land Unit – Shannon-Weaver Index (SOIL VARIETY in GIC original version)0.02, # COMPACTNESS RATIO (AREA RELATIVE TO THE AREA OF A CIRCLE WITH THE SAME PERIMETER LENGTH)0.1, # STREAM DENSITY (LINEAR FEET/ACRE)0.1, # Ecological System Redundancy (RARE/THREATENED/ENDANGERED SPECIES ABUNDANCE (Number of occurrences) in GIC original version) 0.1, # Endemic Species Max (RARE/THREATENED/ENDANGERED SPECIES DIVERSITY (Number of unique species in a core) in GIC original version)
Source MXD: GICores_03_05_All_Cores.mxd