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Using a methodology outlined by the Green Infrastructure Center, Inc. Esri staff created a national intact habitat cores database for the lower 48 United States.
The methodology identified, using nationally available datasets, intact or minimally disturbed areas at least 100 acres in size and with a minimum width of 200 meters.
The identification of intact areas relied upon the 2011 National Land Cover Database. Potential cores areas were selected from land cover categories not containing the word “developed” or those categories associated with agriculture uses (crop, hay and pasture lands). The resulting areas were tested for size and width requirements, and then converted into unique polygons.
These polygons were then overlaid with a diverse assortment of physiographic, biologic and hydrographic layers to use in computing a “core quality index”.
These layers included:
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
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: GICores6_11_All_Cores
Using a methodology outlined by the Green Infrastructure Center, Inc. Esri staff created a national intact habitat cores database for the lower 48 United States.
The methodology identified, using nationally available datasets, intact or minimally disturbed areas at least 100 acres in size and with a minimum width of 200 meters.
The identification of intact areas relied upon the 2011 National Land Cover Database. Potential cores areas were selected from land cover categories not containing the word “developed” or those categories associated with agriculture uses (crop, hay and pasture lands). The resulting areas were tested for size and width requirements, and then converted into unique polygons.
These polygons were then overlaid with a diverse assortment of physiographic, biologic and hydrographic layers to use in computing a “core quality index”.
These layers included:
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
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: GICores6_11_All_Cores