As the Fish Swims
Improved Habitat Connectivity
Between Wilderness Areas
Using the River Network
Stephan Gmur
Geography\University of Idaho
Project Advisor: Alex Fremier
Fish and Wildlife Resources\University of Idaho
Addressing Changes
• Human Disturbance to the Landscape
• Climatic Changes
• Aquatic and Semi-Aquatic Species Movement
Way to address
• What obstacles do aquatic and semi-aquatic
species who are limited to travel along
streams face in the current landscape?
How to Evaluate
Phase I
Phase II
• Identify areas where
species are currently
located
– Protected areas
– Wilderness areas
• Streams along which
species will move
• How the Environment
has changed
– Landuse
• Dam locations
• Pollution or other
environmental stresses
Datasets
• Phase I
• Protected Areas Database (PAD5)
• National Hydrography Dataset Plus (NHDPlus)
• Phase II
– National Land Cover Database (NLCD)
– Dam Locations
– Other Types of Barriers
Methodology
• A short
demonstration using
4 protected areas and
a stream network
ID
1
2
3
4
1
0
27950
7491
18896
2 27950
3
7491
0
20459
20459 27988
0
4 18896 27988 11405
11405
0
Reported Travel Matrix
Resulting
Components
• Protected Areas
• Pathways of
Connectivity
• Sacramento
Watershed Unit B
Implementation
• Python 2.5
• ESRI ArcGIS Desktop
9.3.1
• Geoprocessing
Framework
• Eclipse with the
Python plugin
Workflow
Define network
points
Text file of
X,Y
Coordinates
of Network
Points
User Network
Analyst to calculate
pair wise distances
Split List into
smaller subsets
Summarize all
path lengths into
travel matrix
Output Paths
Subset
Lists
ID
1
2
3
4
5
6
1
0
10
9
12
13
10
2
10
0
6
5
20
16
3
9
6
0
20
10
15
4
12
5
20
0
9
5
5
13
20
10
9
0
2
6
10
16
15
5
2
0
Travel Matrix
Initial Results
• Willamette Watershed
700000
y = 1.4656x + 94387
R² = 0.3397
600000
Network Distance
500000
400000
Network_Average
300000
200000
1:1 line
100000
Linear
(Network_Average)
0
0
100000
200000
300000
400000
500000
Linear Distance
600000
700000
Planned Analysis
• NHD Plus sub
areas
• Repeat analysis
to look for
consistent
relationships
Further Extension: Phase II
• Evaluate human
development on the
landscape
• Identify areas where
there is impasse
Expected Benefits
• Placement of
Ecosystem
Services
• Identification of
Disconnected
Habitat
• Pairing with other
Tools such as
Climate Wizard by
The Nature
Conservancy
http://www.climatewizard.org/
Change in Annual Precipitation by 2100
Change in Annual Temperature by 2100
Questions?