Habitat Suitability Mapping

Introduction

Geographic information systems and remote sensing techniques use an overall approach for spatially comparing habitat aspects and species distribution. Ecological information is essential, in particular, to study various forest management methodologies concerning the effectiveness of biodiversity conservation, and perhaps to assess the impact of different places to be allocated from timber production.

For species mapping, habitat shape and size, as well as the geographic distribution of their occurrence in the terrain, should be considered. Several researchers have emphasized the relevance of the topographic structure in wildlife population trends, reserve planning, or rather management techniques.

Habitat suitability models are typically used to assess species existence by modelling appropriate environmental factors. Distribution modeling is used to determine which environmental factors are linked to species occurrence, which can help us better understand species physiology and vulnerabilities. Modeling different environments or climate zones involves the exploration of potential adaptation responses.

MCEs can give us technology tools for simulating expert knowledge and integrating (normalizing, weighting, and combining) the habitat deserves of distinct species. Studies regarding multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) generally involve criteria of varying importance to decision-making.

Weighted linear combination

A weighted linear combination is calculated as a weighted average principle, in which frequent criteria are standardized to a familiar numeric range and also correlated using a weighted average.

Weighted overlay analysis

After reclassifying and ranking the variables, the overlay analysis/weighted sum for land-based criteria was performed. One process of modeling suitability is a weighted overlay. For this analysis, ArcGIS employs the following procedure. In the suitability analysis, each raster layer is given a weight. By allotting a weight to each raster during the overlay process, you can monitor the impact of various criteria in the suitability model.

Importance of Habitat Suitability Mapping

All over the environment, maps of habitat suitability (from higher to lower). In regions of low suitability, there is a high degree of certainty that the species is not observable, whereas places with high suitability can facilitate targets for the survey, security methods, and rehabilitation.

By highlighting regions under which risks to endangered species are unlikely, more accurate and consistent habitat maps can reduce the need for costly ESA consultations, preplanning from the practice takes, and minimising legal proceedings.

Applications

• Invasive species habitat mapping.
• Grassland and wetland conservartion mapping.
• Biodiversity hotspots mapping
• Wildlife  habitat suitability mapping.
• Endangered species mapping.
• Marine species and coral mapping