GIS Applications in Wildlife and Environmental Conservation
Dan Wilde
Geography
dwilde@student.bridgew.edu
6 December 2011
River Otter Habitat Locations
Geographic Information Systems can be used in an extremely large number of ways. One of which is mapping the locations of sites of interest. In this case, a study was done on the locations of otters. Stevens, Just, Cordes, Brooks, and Serfass write about how otter numbers began to dwindle in North America in 1977 and was a cause for concern when the otter was added to the endangered species list. Reintroduction efforts were made in 26 states and in some Canadian provinces.
Otter latrines are areas in which otters live. They are associated with coniferous forests, river bends and rock formations. They are easily recognized by the scraping of vegetation into piles where they eat and play. Also, the depositing of scat is a sign that otters live in the area. The first step to their reintroduction efforts was to map where existing otters lived. Most of the areas that otters live in are remote, so the researches chose to use bridges that span over rivers as common sites to start their search. ArcView GIS 3.2 was used in the mapping of the otter sites. The criteria first used was <2.5km both up and downstream of a bridge. These bridges must also be separated by >10km between drainage sites. This was to ensure that the same group of otters was not studied twice. Each site was studied and it was found that the riverine systems ranged from 6 meters to 45 meters wide and the riparian areas were >80% forested. The 5 km of up and downstream was partitioned into fifty 100m sections that were potential study sites that were selected at random. Large rocks, pools, beaver activity, point of land protrusions, stream meanders, and fallen logs were features that were found to be useful in otter locating and were used in the ranking for habitat quality of potential sites. Of course some of these are not going to be found in a data set that can be downloaded, such as fallen trees and beaver activity. But if one were trying to find potential otter habitats, layers such as hydrography and forestry are very useful. Knowing the density of forest and size of the stream makes it much easier to locate the sites. GIS is very useful in species mapping.
Soil Erosion in China
The Gorges Project in China planned on moving over 1 million people to less arable land. The main concern is soil erosion on these lands, and it is with the help of GIS software that they are able to determine what land can be inhabited. Soil prediction equations are being implemented in GIS software.
This process requires soil and land use layers which are manually digitized and are in vector format. They are later converted into raster format where other factors are used to determine what areas of land have more soil erosion. Slope and steepness, rainfall-runoff erosivity factor, soil loss tolerance (maximum amount of soil that can be lost and still produce crops) and conservation support practices all take part in the mapping of soil erosion and its locations. The purpose of the resulting map is extremely useful. Depending on the different type of soils that are illustrated on the map, certain crops can only be grown in areas where the soil can support them. This map can tell government officials where to designate specific areas where the soil can support a more demanding crop such as corn, and also where to implement soil conserving farming methods such as tillage farming or crop rotation, which resulted in 91% less soil loss. China can maximize the crops they grow while still keeping the soil above the point of exhaustion.
With examples like this, there could be changes in the way crops are grown across the globe. By using the factors of soil degradation in GIS software China, as well as every other country in the world, can maximize the amount of food grown within it and increase the efficiency in which it is grown. Soil erosion is a large problem throughout the world, and with many people starving within it, the GIS software used in this method could increase food production if implemented around the globe.
Poverty and the Environment
GIS software is also great at finding relating factors that cause problems. This is done with overlaying features and seeing where certain features are separate and intersecting. By comparing features in areas where they do not intersect with the areas in which they do intersect, one can make conclusions on how they affect one another. In the case of Rwanda’s Poverty-Environment Initiative, Ahmen Garadi and Charles Tweigye – Bakwatsa used GIS to see the relationship between the environment and poverty, and to determine what could be done to reduce poverty without disturbing the surrounding environment.
Rwanda’s goal was to decrease poverty, but instead of doing whatever it takes to reduce poverty, the government recognizes the fact that it cannot be done at the expense of the environment. One of the biggest challenges is the lack of land available to move people to. Deforestation has been a problem in the past so it is apparent that clearing land for people to live is not an option. The mapping of natural resources is very important because poorer people live nearer to them and depend on them for their livelihood. The reduction of these natural resources affects these people more as they become less available. Better management of these natural resources ensures less poverty. Poverty incidences, soil erosion, and population density were overlayed to produce a map of the relationship between the three and reclassified to show a gradation of worst to better in the area. The map showed that the north and the northeast were the most affected areas. Using this map the government was able to locate the problem areas and propose some solutions. What they came up with was reforestation in some areas and the expansion of urbanization along with spatial utilization to accommodate those who were living in the north and northeast of Rwanda.
The Rwandan government knew there was a problem with poverty, and although people may have had a rough idea of where the poverty line may have laid, GIS software was utilized to find out exactly where it was. Using the map features, people were relocated and the urban areas were reorganized to accommodate everyone. Solving the poverty issue was the main goal of the government, and doing it without destroying the environment was its second goal. GIS made it possible to relocate, reorganize, and to actually improve the environment in the surrounding areas.
GIS and Cetaceans
Cetaceans are sea mammals such as dolphins and whales. Many cetaceans are endangered and are a main focus for wildlife conservation. GIS is not only useful on land, it can also be used for water bodies and oceans, but there is a lot less information about the landscape under water than there is on land.
At Davidson college students used GIS software to map the locations of dolphins and whales. GIS was used because it provides a data base that can hold multiple layers from different times. This enables the researchers to track where an animal is and mark their migration patterns. By comparing where the animals are at different times of the years, they can predict where they will be at a future time, allowing researchers to study them easier. It also allows them to see where a specific species goes during different times of the year. In one project the students kept track of thirteen different types of cretaceans throughout the summer months. Some of the problems these researchers run into have to do with their equipment. All of the equipment must be waterproof and require changing of batteries. Radios and satellite transmitters must also be salt degradation proof. It must be difficult to have to study an animal from a small boat, especially when trying to view an animal that is deep underwater. Factors such as depth, time, and sea floor elevation are used in the GIS software. The software is mainly used to keep track of three things in conservation and tracking. These factors are what animal, where the animal is, and at what time.
If it were not for GIS software, researchers would not be able to predict the locations of cretaceans, and therefore would not be able to protect them. There is not as much information available about the ocean as there is on land, but it is a growing database. The work researchers can conduct with GIS will help species grow in population and stop whaling companies by setting up and maintaining conservation boundaries.
The Link between Biodiversity and Fires
With Geographic Information Systems, not only can we see where forests are, but we can also see what makes up certain forests. This is done through mapping biodiversity. Fires are very good at changing the biodiversity within a forested area. GIS is used to keep track of biodiversity of forest and frequencies of fires. Invasions of foreign plant species can be detrimental to the population of plants that originally inhabited an area.
One major concern associated with forest fires is the chance for foreign plant species to take root in a recently burned forest. Often times invasive species use up the resources for the species that originally inhabited the area. This could be due to the consumption of fertile soils or blocking the availability of light, both causing the death of the earlier plants. The changing of plant species can have very negative impacts on an ecosystem that they invade. For example, grasses that invade a forest can raise the risk of fires, making it easier for fires to spread, whether they started from humans or by natural causes. GIS can be especially helpful in mapping areas and their vegetations. Controlled fires are also mapped in GIS software to determine what areas are at the highest risk of fires. Each area theoretically has a different vegetation composition which is also mapped in GIS software. Controlled fires are implemented to keep a forest from becoming homogeneous. Homogeneity of a forest is characterized by the same amount of time since the last forest fire, for the entirety of the forest. Vegetation in these types of forests is also homogeneous. The longer the amount of time since an area of a forest has experienced a forest fire, the more likely it is to experience one soon. There is a link between the homogeneity of time since a fire, and the homogeneity of vegetation composition.
There is a delicate balance of vegetation in a forest, and its composition is very important to the ecosystem it is within. The wider an area is with the same type of vegetation, the more vulnerable it is to natural disaster such as disease and fires. Using GIS software, researches are able to prescribe controlled fires to certain areas so that a fire that does happen naturally, or by human accident, does not burn down the entire forest. The GIS software also makes it possible to map where invading species are growing into. The invading species need to be monitored because they make it even easier for a fire to keep burning. They kill off other plants, adding those dead plants to the debris on the forest floors that contribute to canopy fires. The link between vegetation, composition, and forest fires is one that must be mapped and maintained very carefully.
Works Cited
(In order of briefs written above)
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