Online Access to Spatial Datasets for Conservation Planning in the Pacific Northwest
Recent advancements in climate modeling, remote sensing, and ecological science have produced a variety of digital geospatial datasets representing many aspects of climate-change ecology that can be applied to conservation and natural-resource management in the face of climate change. The ever increasing body of climate-ecology spatial datasets provides opportunities for natural-resource managers to anticipate climate-driven changes to ecosystems, habitats, and the larger landscape, however, natural-resource managers face many challenges when trying to incorporate these diverse sources of information into on-the-ground decision-making.
The Northwest CASC recently supported the development of A guidebook to spatial datasets for conservation planning under climate change in the Pacific Northwest, a resource that provides user-friendly overviews of a variety of spatial datasets relevant to conservation and management of natural resources in the face of climate change in the Pacific Northwest. In order to ensure that this important tool is most accessible and usable by scientists and natural resource managers, this project will "web-enable" this guidebook, creating narratives for the 24 spatial climate datasets contained in the guidebook and developing a web version of the publication.
The information included in the guidebook and made available via the new web tool provides natural-resource managers with “snapshots” of a variety of datasets representing diverse processes and conditions, including climate projections, changes in hydrologic conditions, vegetation and fire-regime shifts, animal habitat changes, species movements, and topographic and soil conditions relevant to climate change. Ensuring that this information is easily accessible to managers will help in meeting the primary goals of the guidebook, which are to: (1) support natural-resource managers to discover and examine spatial datasets that might be relevant to their ongoing efforts, (2) increase the usefulness and usability of climate-ecology spatial datasets for real-world conservation decision-making, and (3) help bridge the gap between scientific publications and conservation practice.
- Source: USGS Sciencebase (id: 5f4557b982ce4c3d1225197a)
Recent advancements in climate modeling, remote sensing, and ecological science have produced a variety of digital geospatial datasets representing many aspects of climate-change ecology that can be applied to conservation and natural-resource management in the face of climate change. The ever increasing body of climate-ecology spatial datasets provides opportunities for natural-resource managers to anticipate climate-driven changes to ecosystems, habitats, and the larger landscape, however, natural-resource managers face many challenges when trying to incorporate these diverse sources of information into on-the-ground decision-making.
The Northwest CASC recently supported the development of A guidebook to spatial datasets for conservation planning under climate change in the Pacific Northwest, a resource that provides user-friendly overviews of a variety of spatial datasets relevant to conservation and management of natural resources in the face of climate change in the Pacific Northwest. In order to ensure that this important tool is most accessible and usable by scientists and natural resource managers, this project will "web-enable" this guidebook, creating narratives for the 24 spatial climate datasets contained in the guidebook and developing a web version of the publication.
The information included in the guidebook and made available via the new web tool provides natural-resource managers with “snapshots” of a variety of datasets representing diverse processes and conditions, including climate projections, changes in hydrologic conditions, vegetation and fire-regime shifts, animal habitat changes, species movements, and topographic and soil conditions relevant to climate change. Ensuring that this information is easily accessible to managers will help in meeting the primary goals of the guidebook, which are to: (1) support natural-resource managers to discover and examine spatial datasets that might be relevant to their ongoing efforts, (2) increase the usefulness and usability of climate-ecology spatial datasets for real-world conservation decision-making, and (3) help bridge the gap between scientific publications and conservation practice.
- Source: USGS Sciencebase (id: 5f4557b982ce4c3d1225197a)