Effect of Human Population on Land Use and Species Viability: Methodology and Software

Human land-use decisions can adversely affect the vitality and diversity of natural communities. However, well-designed regional development plans can mitigate or even reverse biodiversity losses. This project aims to develop methods and software for evaluating the effects of human landusedecisions on biodiversity.The proposed work will enable rapid assessment of the biodiversity consequences of alternative development and conservation strategies, extending Applied Biomathematics & #39; internationally recognized technologies for modeling the viability of spatiallystructured wildlife populations. The software will generate a temporal progression of habitat qualitymaps with which the viability of a suite of selected species is assessed. The habitat dynamicsmodule integrates land-use and conservation decision rules with other habitat change processes,harnessing existing data and models on human demography, wildlife habitat, and climate change.Major advances of the proposed software include the ability to specify interactions among thenatural and anthropogenic drivers of landscape change, and the ability to assess conservation tradeoffsin a multi-species framework. Users will be able to employ this framework to make informeddecisions regarding regional development, management, restoration and wildlife protection.The proposed software will be marketed to federal, state, and local planning and regulatoryagencies, international agencies, universities, non-profit organizations, and environmentalconsultants. We believe the product will contribute substantially to the protection and enhancementof the nation & #39;s natural heritage by providing an objective, interactive, and transparent framework forassessing the biodiversity consequences of alternative land-use strategies.