Module 1 Scenario 4 - Suitability Analysis / Least Cost Path Analysis

 

Corridor Analysis Map for Black Bear Movement in Coronado National Forest

Scenario 4 of this module required making a least cost path / corridor analysis that would highlight areas in which Black Bears would likely travel between Coronado National Forest in Arizona. This analysis was very self-directed and I was able to utilize all of the skills and concepts acquired throughout the module. The corridor analysis is very useful in real-world settings, and can be used in a variety of fields and applications. This particular example of Black Bear corridors would be useful in Wildlife Monitoring and Infrastructure / Environmental Planning. It is important to consider a multitude of factors when running a analysis such as this one. The factors I took into account were the elevation, land cover type, and distance from roadways. Other potential spatial elements that could be considered fo future analyses would be food availability, distance to water sources, and distance to civilization.

Steps Taken in Conducting the Corridor Analysis

First, I needed to reclassify the three factors for the corridor: distance to roads, elevation, and land cover. After completing the reclassifications, I was able to create a suitability map from the reclassified rasters using the weighted overlay tool and the specified weight influences in the lab instructions. Then, I created a calculation in the Raster Calculator Tool to Invert the suitability map to highlight populated areas. After doing this, I used this inverted suitability map as an input in the Cost Distance tool to determine the cost distance for both areas of Coronado National Forest. Lastly, I created the corridor of likely Black Bear migrations from these cost distance paths.

Overall, I greatly enjoyed working through this scenario and having the ability to craft a map that was both aesthetically pleasing and useful. I decided to use a manual interval method for the actual corridor, so I could adjust the maximum values to narrow the corridor down for what the actual migration patterns likely look like. I wanted each level of suitability to show in the final map output, so I decided to include this layer. I also added a hillside using the elevation layer, so that one could visually see the terrain and how this impacted the suitability analysis. With all of these factors, one may clearly see each layer and what it is to represent. I believe this map on its own could be used to make important policy and planning decisions regarding the Coronado National Forest Black Bear population.

Flowchart for Scenario 4 Steps