Problem: How can land-owning agencies and conservation groups best plan for and manage their holdings?

Solution: Analyzing complex datasets that represent ecosystem patterns and processes can help land managers prioritize and implement acquisition and restoration work related to aquatic habitat and fisheries, removal of exotic species, wildland-urban interface fire management, wildlife connectivity. GIS also provides an efficient structure for the analysis of landscape change over time – understanding changes in the quality and distribution of habitat is necessary to maintain the viability of species over time.

Examples of ecological analysis include habitat connectivity modeling for wildlife species, landscape structure and fragmentation assessments to analyze the size, shape and connectivity of vegetation or resource patches, representation analysis to identify the degree to which vegetation communities are protected within a region. Related analysis can range from assessing fire risk based on vegetation and fire history to support for restoration of ecologically degraded sites.

Two projects illustrate some of the work that GreenInfo Network can help with:

• Transportation and Roads Analysis (images at right):  The California Chapter of The Nature Conservancy and Caltrans, the California Department of Transportation, asked GreenInfo Network to help them identify advance strategies for avoiding conflicts between highways and conservation. Using GIS to analyze both the location of planned roads and the occurrences of key species, GreenInfo developed an overall approach for collaboration. As part of the work, we created GIS tools for an example region that allow users to quickly find what species are affected by proposed roads and what lands are especially important for conservation. 
  
  

• Restoration of a Degraded Canyon (images below):  Community Conservancy International, a nonprofit organization focused on the intersection between natural and human communities, led a team of scientists, engineers, and planners on a project to restore a degraded portion of Upper Newport Bay Ecological Reserve in Orange County. Big Canyon Creek has been heavily impacted by urban runoff, and its inlet into the greater bay has been drastically altered due to flood damage and invasive species. GreenInfo Network took the lead in compiling, organizing, and managing data related to the project site. We were able to combine data from different sources and in widely varying formats (tabular, CAD, GIS, graphic) into a complete GIS project database. We also worked with biologists and ecologists to develop a highly detailed vegetation and biota model of the site, which was used in subsequent restoration designs. Overall, GreenInfo's work was essential in visualizing and analyzing a spectrum of information, leading to the assessment of restoration priorities and the creation of a final restoration plan.