For another scenario in this week's lab, I was playing the role of a Park Ranger in the Coronado National Forest. My task to model the potential movement of black bears between two protected areas. This potential corridor was based upon three criteria associated with bear habitat suitability:
- Distance to Roads
- Elevation
- Land cover type
In order to complete this task, I first used the Euclidean Distance tool on the roads layer to calculate the shortest distance from each cell to the nearest road. I then reclassified each of the three layers (distance to roads, elevation, and land covery) based on a suitability scale of 0 - 10, 0 being the least suitable for bear habitat and 10 being the most suitable for bear habitat. I then combined these three reclassified layers into a single habitat suitability model based on the following relative weights:
- Land cover (60%)
- Elevation (20%)
- Distance to Roads (20%)
Next, I created a cost surface layer by "inverting" the habitat suitability model using the Raster Calculator tool since higher habitat suitability implies lower (preferred) travel cost. I then ran the Cost Distance tool using each of the two protected areas as the source and the cost surface layer created in the previous step as the cost raster. After that, I ran the Corridor tool using these two cost distance layers from each of the protected areas as the input layers. The final step was to adjust the corridor threshold values to narrow down the results to produce a meaningful corridor. Below are my results.
The two protected areas within the Coronado National Forest are outlined in black, and the best potential black bear corridor area is shown in red. Black bear habitat suitability is shown throughout the entire study area in various shades of green and yellow, with dark green representing the best habitat and pale yellow representing the worst habitat.
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