Determining Optimal Wildlife Corridors Between Protected Wilderness Areas in Washington State
In this project we used five varied raw datasets to create a cost surface that would help in determining the optimal paths for wildlife traveling between the numerous protected wilderness regions in Washington State. Those data layers included US Census Block Groups, USGS Landcover & Federal Protected Areas, WSDOT Highways, and a WA Digital Elevation Model.
I created a complex analysis model in ArcGIS Pro using Modelbuilder which did some preprocessing and calculations with the raw data to create a combined weighted overlay representing the "Wildness Index" for all of WA. Combining that with Distance Accumulation calculations (while accounting for impassible barriers such as large bodies of water) I was able to generate a series of interconnecting pathways between the major wilderness areas in the state.
This kind of information can be used to focus conservation efforts where they are needed most in order to reconnect fragmented habitats and de-isolate species subpopulations that have formed due to fragmentation from human development of the area, such as has been observed with Mountain lions in Washington.
Harnick_ENVS420_Lab4_Report.pdf