Additional / alternative paths between core areas

[Chris Nagy]

Hi all - Is there any way to map out more than one corridor between pairs of core areas? In addition to the least cost path, can I get the 2nd- and 3rd- least costly paths too?  

It would likely not be this simple, as the 2nd best path is probably just a few pixels off the LCP. But in essence I would like to find a way to map alternative routes that animals might take between the same set of core areas.

I am working in a suburban/urban area and I have observed animals use different paths between the same two areas, depending on many factors most of which I could only guess. For example, if they are in the north end of Core A and want to get to the south end of Core B they might take a different route than if they want to get to a different part of Core B. 

I made a little diagram that attempts to show what I've observed below.

In this crude example the red lines are the LCPs that have been mapped and I do think they are legit pathways used by wildlife. But there are also other paths that see high movements of many species, and I'd like to get these on the map.

So far I have tried to address this by making make many more core areas which forces there to be more paths. Originally core areas were set as forest blocks of 200 acres or more. For the second map I used 15 acres. 

It worked out well in terms of finding movement zones that I have observed animals using, but I would not call those new 15 acre patches core areas in terms of habitat for the species I'm looking at.  

Thanks for any help you can provide

[John Gallo]

Hi Chris and All,

Chris, 

Great work!

The way I like to do this is to do what you have done below, but with an exception: I only include the 15 acre patches (i.e. "core core zones" or starting points within a core) that are in the original core areas.  Often, making the habitat suitability threshold more stringent when selecting seed zones is best. (Gives you the best spots in the core zone.)  Then, when presenting, show the linkages from the 15 acre run, but overlay the 200 acre cores. Consider using linkage priority, but probably add a expert opinion values (optional) based on the Linkage Priority values of the 200 Acre run.

Alternatively, you could randomly generate points in the core zones, and then find the LCPs from a random subset, and repeat, then overlay the results.  Tom Dilts of U Nevada Reno met with us about this and is hoping to add that as a linkage mapper tool someday, or share it in some other way.

Annika Keeley was telling me about a similar method too, that could be programmed in.

All,

If anyone wants to add something along these lines as a new Linkage Mapper tool, please do!  You can do it via Github processes as a starting point, maybe make an issue and note you are working on it or something like that. Ping me if you have questions about that.

Cheers!

John

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John A. Gallo, Ph.D.

Project Director

LinkageMapper.org

and

Senior Conservation Scientist

Conservation Biology Institute