Download the Tutorial

More documents

Recommendations

Info

IntroductionMany countries are seeking technical assistance to meet the requirements laid down in theSeventh Conference of the Parties (COP-7) Global Program of Work (PoW) on Protected Areas(PAs). The PoW mandates an established global network of representative and effectivelymanaged national and regional PAs on land by 2010 and at sea by 2012 (CBD, 2001). The NatureConservancy (TNC) has a vested interest in helping countries develop science-based PA networksand has pledged to build capacity through the development of country-driven NationalImplementation Support Programs (NISPs) a program that supports the Convention on BiologicalDiversity.One way to help overcome the technical challenges of the daunting process of evaluating andfilling protected area gaps is the development and use of GIS-based user-friendly tools thatsupport the protected area gap process. The development of a Protected Area Gap DecisionSupport System (DSS) was conceived as part of an ongoing process to help fill the technical voidthat exists in many countries. The development of these tools was funded by the InteramericanBiodiversity Information Network (IABIN) and The World Bank Development Grant Facility(DGF). It is part of a process to further support IABIN’s objectives and help conservationplanners throughout Mesoamerica and the Caribbean assess current PA status and establishpriorities for future conservation management. Version 1.0 of these tools was completed inSeptember 2006 and works in ArcGIS 9.1. The new version 3.0 was completed in August 2009,renamed to the Protected Area Tools (PAT) and is now compatible with ArcGIS 9.3. This versionincludes many new features requested from our users. It is hoped that PAT will continue toevolve and provide utility for evaluating land purchase/acquisition for achieving maximum returnon investment in terms of overall contribution to a country’s conservation goals. In addition toquestions that may be asked about the best remaining core habitat or covering a comprehensiverepresentation of biodiversity, the ultimate question conservation planners want answered is“Where do I get the best ecological return for my conservation dollar?” This question has driventhe design of a systematic, logical, and repeatable toolkit that helps planners evaluate activities orevents that may be threatening habitat health, identify a comprehensive representation ofbiodiversity for protection, and configure an optimal portfolio solution for meeting habitatconservation goals. PAT consists of three conservation modules which operate withinEnvironmental Systems Research Institute’s (ESRI) ArcGIS 9.3 Geographic Information System(GIS) software:1) Environmental Risk Surface (ERS)2) Relative Biodiversity Index (RBI)3) Marxan ToolsArcGIS 9.3 software was chosen as the application for the tool since ESRI is a strong supporter ofTNC’s mission and provides a grant agreement in which conservation partners can freely obtaintheir software for conservation-related work. Each of the three modules was developed usingVisual Basic.NET/ArcObjects. PAT operates on three basic input data layers including a)habitats/species; b) risks elements to habitats/species; and c) protected areas. As this is aniterative process, users are encouraged to continue to refine habitat/species data, goals, and riskelements in order to reassess ecological gaps over time. These tools permit countries to continuethe refinement process in a systematic and repeatable manner. PAT will continue to be developedbased on user’s needs and refined for investigations into a) habitat/species vulnerability to riskelements such as land cover change, fragmentation, and changes to PA boundaries ormanagement practices; b) distributions of habitats/species in the landscape to ensure that there aresufficient occurrences across their environmental range within PAs; and c) overall level ofprotected status to site irreplaceability as modeled by Marxan.TNC Protected Area Tools (PAT) Version 3.0The Nature Conservancy, August 20094
Mandatory Requirements Needed to Run the Protected Area Tools1. The user needs to have ArcGIS 9.3 Desktop installed.• Earlier versions of the tool (e.g. ArcGIS 9.1 and 9.2) can bedownloaded from http://www.gispatools.org (You can check whatversion and level of ArcGIS you are running by going to Help > AboutArcMap)• An ArcView Level is required to run the ERS and RBI modules• An ArcInfo Level is required to run the Marxan Tools - you also needto have ArcInfo Workstation installed. Make sure the CoverageTools Toolbox is loaded (this is the default setting during installation).This toolbox is usually found in C:\arcgis\arcexe9x\Toolboxes (If theuser has installed it to the default location)• To ensure full functionality of these tools, please install the latestArcGIS Service Packs from www.esri.com.2. Version 3.0 requires that Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 be installed onyour computer. If you do not have Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0installed, you should follow these steps:a) Download the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 fromhttp://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=0856eacb-4362-4b0d-8edd-aab15c5e04f5&displaylang=enb) Install ArcGIS 9.3 with .Net support (This only shows up after you dostep a). If you have already installed ArcGIS 9.3, input the DVD setupdisk in your DVD drive and go to Start > Control Panel > Add orRemove Programs. Scroll down to ArcGIS Desktop and click on theChange button. Once the change Menu appears, click on Modify andthen install the .NET Framework Support. This option is only availableonce you install the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 in step a. Onceyou have added this support function, you are now ready to install theProtected Area Tools.3. The user must have installed the Spatial Analyst Extension and it shouldbe turned on.• Check to see if it is available and turned on under Tools > Extensions)4. Make sure you your input features are topologically correct by runninggeometry checked/repaired for each input feature. These tools can befound in ArcToolbox under Data Management Tools > Features > Checkand Repair Geometry. If problems persist after repairing geometry,converting shapefiles into coverage format, then back to shapefile formatwill often solve the problem. PAT will process feature classes fromgeodatabases and shapefiles. Unlike the other modules, the ERS moduleworks with grids and other raster formats supported by ArcGIS.TNC Protected Area Tools (PAT) Version 3.0The Nature Conservancy, August 20095
Page 1 and 2: Protected Area Tools (PAT)TMfor Arc
Page 3: AcknowledgementsThe idea for the de
Page 7 and 8: Installing the Protected Area Tools
Page 9 and 10: The majority of the work that goes
Page 11 and 12: data to spatially represent the spe
Page 13 and 14: 2003, Araújo et al. 2002). In some
Page 15 and 16: 1.1 Setting up the ERS TableSuccess
Page 17 and 18: 1.1.1 Overlay FunctionAnother item
Page 19 and 20: features have been added to the map
Page 21 and 22: the output will automatically defau
Page 23 and 24: Once you click OK in the previous m
Page 25 and 26: unit or feature (i.e. polygon) must
Page 27 and 28: higher elevations and ridges moving
Page 29 and 30: 1.3.4.2 Marine ERS ModelsDeveloping
Page 31 and 32: MODULE 2. Relative Biodiversity Ind
Page 33 and 34: Normalized relative biodiversity in
Page 35 and 36: EXERCISE 2. Calculating the Relativ
Page 37 and 38: the targets (polygons with lots of
Page 39 and 40: Once this step is performed, you ca
Page 41 and 42: This selection routine will choose
Page 43 and 44: 3.0 The MARXAN AlgorithmOne of the
Page 45 and 46: 6. All input features must have the
Page 47 and 48: grid of squares or lattice of hexag
Page 49 and 50: • To make "area" and "length" com
Page 51 and 52: Sug gested steps for preparing inpu
Page 53 and 54: 2. Planning Unit File (pu.dat)This
Page 55 and 56:
‘id2’ are set but no value for
Page 57 and 58:
conservation target files are alrea
Page 59 and 60:
An example of what an attribute tab
Page 61 and 62:
values. These values will be used i
Page 63 and 64:
Occurrence (OCC), Minimum Clump (CL
Page 65 and 66:
3.2.4 Combining Marxan Input FilesI
Page 67 and 68:
2. Click onto the Run Options tab p
Page 69 and 70:
This is the folder where the output
Page 71 and 72:
3.4 Joining and Displaying Marxan O
Page 73 and 74:
Figure 12. Results of joining the t
Page 75:
McPherson, M, S. Schill, G. Raber,
show all

Download the Tutorial

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?