Master's Thesis
Using ArcGIS Pro (v3.1) and ArcGIS Online to support town-level Land and Wildlife conservation efforts in Massachusetts
I present a case study on applying ArcGIS software to support the mission of a small Massachusetts conservation group, the Land Preservation Society of Norton. The project includes custom ArcGIS Pro tools built with ModelBuilder and ArcPy, a curated geodatabase of statewide data layers used throughout the analysis, and an ArcGIS StoryMap that walks through the methodology. The thesis focuses on two analyses:
Wildlife Corridor Prediction
The 'Parcel Acquisition' tool generates theoretical wildlife corridors between conserved habitats, using least-cost paths
as a proxy for identifying high-priority parcels for land acquisition.
Habitat Fragmentation Potential
The 'Fragmentation Potential' tool generates a raster layer indicating how likely a core wildlife habitat is to become
fragmented, based on proximity to roads and buildings.
Viewed together, the outputs of both tools highlight areas conservation groups may prioritize for land acquisition. This turns fragmentation risk and corridor connectivity into a decision-making tool, that is repeatable by other conservation groups for any Town in Massachuestts.
The StoryMap can be used as a walk-through, and to download the required data.