Software/Modeling Demonstration
and Swap Meet
Thursday, 1 April 2003 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
1. VFS - Simulate and visualize fire spread at landscape scale
Jian Yang and He Hong
VFS (Visualized Fire Simulation) is a graphic user interface (GUI) based
computer program to simulate and animate fire on heterogeneous
landscapes. VFS captures fire spread behaviors based on fuel configuration,
wind regime and topographical effects using either partial differential
equation (PDE) method or various percolation algorithms such as
static percolation, depth first search recursive algorithm, and
dynamic percolation with fire front. Users can compare the simulation
capability of each method from visual perception and scientific
analysis of output (e.g., burned pattern maps) using the analysis
package built in the VisualFire or an external one (e.g., Fragstats).
Furthermore, output from VisualFire can be linked to GIS and used
to cross validate other fire simulation models such as EMBYR. To
accommodate understanding the sensitivity of the input parameters
of each method, users can specify a range and an increase step
for a parameter in VFS so that a series of such parameter values
will be generated sequentially, and each value will be applied
into one simulation which can have as many replicates as users
want. Finally, VFS can be used as a parameterization tool for the
forest landscape models that incorporate fire spread simulation
(e.g. LANDIS). VisualFire is written in C++ and programmed in DLL,
and run on Windows platform.
2. Spatial modeling of regional vegetation using field plots
and geospatial information : a software framework for the Gradient
Nearest
Neighbor
method
Matthew J. Gregory and Janet L. Ohmann
We present a software framework for running
the Gradient Nearest Neighbor (GNN) method for predictive vegetation
mapping. GNN applies direct gradient analysis and nearest-neighbor
imputation to ascribe detailed ground attributes of vegetation
to each pixel in a digital landscape map. To do this, GNN integrates
vegetation measurements from regional grids of field plots, mapped
environmental data, and Landsat TM imagery. In the resulting vegetation
map, multiple vegetation attributes are represented as continuous
variables that can be classified and queried to address a variety
of objectives. The GNN software tool is meant to aid researchers
and analysts with experience in GIS and ordination techniques in
creating spatially explicit surfaces from multivariate models.
The framework currently is configured to work with a variety of
ordination techniques (e.g., canonical correspondence analysis
and redundancy analysis), spatial formats (e.g., Arc GRID, Imagine,
generic binary) and spatial domains (e.g., point, window, attribute
query). We also include methods for determining map accuracy based
on a modified jackknifing approach as well as spatial uncertainty
measures based on multiple-neighbor imputation. The software runs
as a stand-alone Windows application. Future enhancements will
include incorporating other statistical methods and developing
an ArcMap extension that would allow more exploratory analysis.
3. HARVEST: linking strategic forest management options with landscape
patterns
Eric Gustafson
HARVEST is a timber harvest simulation model constructed to allow
the input of specific rules to allocate forest stands for even-age
harvest (clearcuts and shelterwood) and group selection, using
parameters commonly found in National Forest Plan standards and
guidelines. The model produces landscape patterns that have spatial
attributes resulting from the initial landscape conditions and
potential timber management activities. The model is simplistic
in that it does not attempt to optimize timber production or quality,
nor does it predict the specific locations of future harvest activity,
as it ignores many considerations such as visual objectives and
road access. Instead, the model stochastically mimics the allocation
of stands for harvest by forest planners, using the constraints
of the standards and guidelines and the spatial distribution of
management zones (each with specific management objectives). Modeling
this process allows experimentation to link variation in management
strategies with the resulting pattern of forest openings and the
distribution of forest age classes. A simplified version for educational
purposes (Harvest Lite) will also be demonstrated.
4. EPA's Regional Vulnerability Assessment Program's web-based
Environmental Decision Toolkit (EDT)
Betsy Smith and Michael O'Connell
EPA's Regional Vulnerability Assessment Program's web-based Environmental
Decision Toolkit (EDT) facilitates decision-making by allowing
users to view maps of, and relationships between individual spatial
variables/coverages and indicators, or integrated indices of relative
condition and vulnerability. Trade-offs can be evaluated by comparing
different sets of indicators (e.g those relating to water quality
or human health) and by differentially weighting selected indicators
(or decision criteria) based on stakeholder input. The EDT, developed
initially for the mid-Atlantic region of the U.S., incorporates
future scenarios of the 5 major drivers of change (land use change,
spread of non indigenous species, resource extraction, changes
in pollution and pollutants, and climate change), allowing insights
into the cumulative impacts associated with these changes. The
web-based application has been developed as a flexible framework
that can be used in any region, and with any scale data. A public
version of the mid-Atlantic version of the EDT will be deployed
later in 2004. This tool will be a critical aid to state and local
governments, and regional EPA offices and planning bodies in developing
efficient and effective strategies for community-based environmental
protection.
5. A Decision Support System for Conservation Planning
David Stoms
Methodology and technological tools are required to extend conservation
planning to the thousands of institutions that impact biodiversity
through their routine planning and management. NatureServe, in
cooperation with several partners, is putting to use its unique
combination of expertise in biodiversity information, data management,
and information technology to develop a decision-support system,
or DSS. With the help of the DSS, planners, conservation groups,
and local governments will be better able to integrate biodiversity
information into their land use planning. The DSS is a collection
of desktop and Internet software tools and information resources,
supported by a network of experts to apply them to real-world land
use and conservation decisions. These tools allow users to harness
the power of advanced geographic information systems to visualize
the environment and evaluate alternative scenarios for the future.
The result is an overlapping continuum among scientists, planners,
and stakeholders that allows for iterative planning and evaluation
using best available data and conservation planning theory. A beta
test version of the software will be demonstrated at the 2004 US-IALE
meeting. The initial version of the decision support system is
planned for release in 2004.
6. AGWA
Darius Semmems
The Automated Geospatial Watershed Assessment (AGWA) tool is a
GIS-based multipurpose hydrologic analysis system for use by watershed,
land, water, and biological resource managers and scientists in
performing watershed- and basin-scale studies. It is an extension
for ESRI’s ArcView 3.X that uses readily available spatial
data sets to parameterize, run, and visualize results from two
widely used watershed runoff and erosion models: the Kinematic
Runoff and Erosion Model (KINEROS), and the Soil & Water Assessment
Tool (SWAT). It is also designed to facilitate the assessment of
hydrologic impacts associated with landscape and land-use change
by allowing the user to compute and visualize the difference between
simulation results. The utility of AGWA in joint hydrologic and
ecological investigations has been demonstrated on such diverse
landscapes as southeastern Arizona, southern Nevada, central Colorado,
and upstate New York. AGWA was developed jointly by the USDA-ARS
Southwest Watershed Research Center and the U.S. EPA Landscape
Ecology Branch, and is distributed freely via the internet as a
modular, open-source suite of programs (www.epa.gov/nerlesd1/land-sci/agwa/)
7. Analytical Tools Interface for Landscape
Assessments (ATtiLa)
Don Ebert
The Analytical Tools Interface for Landscape Assessments (ATtILA)
is an ArcView extension that calculates many commonly used landscape
metrics. By providing an intuitive interface, the extension provides
the ability to generate landscape metrics to a wide audience, regardless
of their GIS knowledge level. ATtILA is a robust, flexible program.
It accepts data from a broad range of sources and is equally suitable
across all landscapes, from deserts to rain forests to urban areas.
Four families of metrics are included in the extension: landscape
characteristics, riparian characteristics, human stressors, and
physical characteristics. Each group has a dialog to accept user
input on which metrics to calculate and what input data to use.
Landscape characteristics are related to land cover proportions
and patch metrics. Riparian characteristics describe land cover
adjacent to and near streams. Human Stressors are concerned with
population, roads, and land use practices, and physical characteristics
provided statistical summaries of such attributes as elevation
and slope.
The extension has three types of output display available. The first
displays areas ranked by individual metric values, the second ranks areas
by a weighted index made up of two or more metrics, and the third displays
a bar chart of selected areas and metrics.
8. Automated GIS Watershed Analysis Tools for RUSLE/SEDMOD Soil Erosion
and Sedimentation Modeling
Rick van Remortel, Robert Maichle, Daniel Heggem and Ann Pitchford
A comprehensive procedure for computing soil erosion and sediment delivery
metrics has been developed using a suite of automated Arc Macro Language
(AML) scripts and a pair of processing-intensive ANSI C++ executable
programs operating on an ESRI ArcGIS (c) 8.2 Workstation Platform. The
computing algorithms are rooted in the technical literature of the Revised
Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) soil erosion modeling framework
and the spatially explicit delivery model (SEDMOD) sedimentation framework.
This suite of programs can be used to estimate the RUSLE-based soil erosion
rate, the SEDMOD-based sediment delivery rate and other ancillary soil
and landform characteristics at multiple reporting scales. The beta version
of the software is currently available for testing and evaluation.
9. PATCH: Program to Assist in Tracking Critical Habitat
Nathan Schumaker
PATCH is a spatially-explicit, individual-based, life history simulator
designed for terrestrial landscapes. It is available now, but is
also undergoing active development. PATCH is presently a females-only
model,
and is useful for evaluating the impacts of landscape alteration
on wildlife populations. The model includes environmental stochasticity
and dynamic
landscape change, and incorporates limited density dependence.
PATCH reads GIS habitat maps, and is parameterized using species-habitat
preferences,
territory size, vital rates, and estimates of movement ability.
PATCH's outputs include measures of population size, projected
habitat occupancy
and movement patterns, and identification of demographic sources
and sinks. Improvements being made include generalizing an animal’s
use of space to accommodate irregular territories or aggregations
(e.g. flocks, colonies, packs, herds).
Future versions will allow users to construct the life cycle from
a suite of survival, reproduction, movement, and other events, making
it possible to model complex life histories and a variety of disturbances
beyond habitat alteration. Density dependence will be better addressed
by linking individual vital rates to per-capita measures of local resource
availability. Future versions will follow males and females, and allow
the simulation of species interactions.
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