Analytics

Endangered Species Modeling

Model develpoment to predict the occurrence of

where certain animals might be on a tract of land

Client

Boise Cascade,

Boise, Idaho

The client conducts tree harvesting operations in forests that contain threatened and endangered species and communities. The company wants to comply with all laws and regulations to protect these species and communities.  To better understand the area the company showed an interest in developing probability occurrence models of endangered birds and mammal species.

A land cover map was the base input for the model, and the GIS system output a probability grid to predict the occurrence of a given endangered species on that piece of property. The maps produced showed the chance that a certain species may be in the area at the given time for this forest area in the northwestern United States.

Services Provided:

Scientific Literature Review

Probabilistic Modeling

Workflow Automation

Spatial Analysis

Solutions

Solutions

  • Conducted a review of scientific publications on local endangered species for model development parameters (nesting territory, foraging habitat, etc)
  • Developed high end models to predict the occurance of certain key endangered species
  • Models included concepts of non-euclidean geometry, variable home-ranges, identifying seed location, and then having these grow into corridors of movement for animals and many other interesting spatial data points

Note

Notable Accomplishments

Tessellations developed probability occurrence models of six endangered species, and the client continued to use the models for protecting endangered and threatened animals.