An example application in GIS Modeling Presentation and

An example application in GIS Modeling Presentation and hands-on exercise materials prepared by Joseph K. Berry Keck Scholar in Geosciences, University of Denver Special Faculty in Natural Resources, Colorado State University Principal, Berry & Associates // Spatial Information Systems Email: jberry@innovativegis. com — Website: www. innovativegis. com/basis Forest Availability and Accessibility Vast regions of the Rocky Mountains are under attack by mountain pine beetles and a blanket of brown is covering millions of acres. Is there something we can do to contain the spread and hasten the regenerative cycle? One suggestion is to remove the dead wood to speed forest health and convert it to useful products— but where and how much harvesting is appropriate? Availability = fn (roads, forests, ownership, legal constraints) Accessibility = fn (terrain, water, housing density, visual exposure) …identify the best Landing Sites and characterize their Timbersheds …for more information, see the online book Beyond Mapping III, Topic 29, Spatial Modeling in Natural Resources www. innovativegis. com/basis/Map. Analysis/

Mountain Pine Beetle Devastation (Situation) Vast regions of the Rocky Mountains are under attack by mountain pine beetles. One possible action to help contain the spread of the beetles and improve forest health is to remove the dead wood… Feller Buncher Skidder Wood Chipper …but where and how much harvesting is environmentally, economically and socially appropriate? http: //summitvoice. files. wordpress. com/2010/01/pine-beetle-map. jpg http: //ndn 1. newsweek. com/media/24/colorado-beetle-forest-destroy-wide-horizontal. jpg http: //earthtrends. wri. org/images/pine_beetle_dist. jpg

Assessing Forest Availability and Access Roads Forests Ownership (Fundamental considerations) Sensitive Areas Forested areas are first assessed for Availability considering ownership and sensitive area designation… Intervening Considerations Forests and Roads …and then characterized by Relative Access considering intervening terrain factors of steepness and stream buffers, plus human factors of housing density and visual exposure to roads and houses. Slope Water Houses

Forest Access Model (Flowchart) Forest Access Model A map of Slope is used to establish relative and absolute barriers for operating mechanized harvesting equipment. Maps of Ownership, Water, and Sensitive Areas are used to establish additional absolute barriers based on legal constraints. Critical “ Map Variables” determining Accessible Forests locations Basic Access Model Forests Ownership Sensitive Areas Water Slope Unavailable Ownerships = 0 Unavailable Sensitive = 0 Unavailable Water Buffer = 0 Unavailable Too Steep = 0 else assigned 1 Relative Steepness Discrete Cost Surface 0 = not forested 1= forested Preference Relative Accessibility 0 = no-go 1 = best : 9 = worst “Effective Proximity” Forest Accessibility 0 =road to 120+ units away 0 = road location to 120+ units away Accumulation Cost Surface 1 = best : 9 = worst Processing Flowchart

Basic Model Results (Effective proximity) Accessible Forests by Effective Proximity 120 Reach 40 Reach Not Available Relative access values for all of the available forested locations with warmer tones indicating a long harvesting reach into the woods. Far Effectively Too Far Not Forested Far 0 1000 2000 ft Simulation of different “reach scenarios” provides information on variations in wood supply from reaching deeper into the forest at increasingly higher access costs. The inset on the right shows the forested areas that are much more easily accessed (40/120=. 33 as far). Note the elimination of available forested locations (yellow to red) that are deemed effectively “too far” from roads.

Extended Forest Access Model (Flowchart) Basic Access Model (Physical and Legal concerns) Ownership Forests Unavailable Ownerships = 0 Sensitive Areas Water Unavailable Sensitive = 0 Unavailable Preference Relative Accessibility 0 = no-go 1 = best Water Buffer = 0 Slope Discrete Cost Surface 0 = not forested 1= forested : 9 = worst Unavailable Too Steep = 0 else assigned 1 0 =road to 120+ units away 0 = road location to 120+ units away Accumulation Cost Surface Relative Steepness Slope Forest Accessibility Basic 1 = best : 9 = worst Extended Access Model Extended (Human Concerns) …willing to reach farther into areas with low visual exposure and housing density Houses Visual Exposure 0 = not seen to 344+ seen Renumber Viewer Locations Radiate Multiplicative Weight Compute Roads Extended Model VE Adjust Extended Model 1 = >75 High. 7 = 20 to 75. 5 = 0 to 20 Low Density 0 = no houses to 66+ houses Average Housing Renumber Houses Scan Elevation HD Adjust 1 = >50 High. 7 = 20 to 50. 5 = 0 to 20 Low Avg Weight 1 = High : . 7 = Medium : . 5 = Low

Comparison of Basic and Extended Model Results Basic Model Results on the left-side indicates that the farthest away location is 116 effective distance units considering physical and legal barriers to access. Max = 116 Max = 76 Extended Model Results on the right-side indicates that the farthest away location is 76 effective distance units when considering the preference to harvest in areas of low visual exposure and housing density.

Characterizing Accessible Forest Areas (Watershed area & timber types) 1) Create a Binary Map of Accessible Forests Template Map Watersheds Accessible Forest Renumber Relative Access Data Map Accessible Forest 2) Region-Wide Overlay Composite Vegetation Type Accessible Forest …there are 374 acres of accessible forest in Watershed 3 …there are 964 acres of accessible Lodgepole Pine Compute 3) Location-Specific Overlay

Identifying Candidate Landing Sites (Gently sloped forest roads) 1) COMPUTE Roads times Forests times Unavailable times Protected times Stream_buffer for Forest_roads Forest_Roads The Forest_Roads map identifies road locations passing through available forest areas. Stream_buffer 1 Protected Unavailable Forests Roads Landing_candidates Roads_avg. Slope 0 increasing steepness 65 Slope 2 3 Forest_Roads 2) SCAN Slope Average within 1 square around Forest_roads for Forest_roads_avg. Slope 3) RENUMBER Forest_roads_avg. Slope assign 1 to. 01 thru 15 assign 0 to 15 thru 200 for Landing_candidates The Landing_candidates map identifies road locations with gentle to moderate terrain (0 -15% slope) within a 100 foot reach (~one acre) of a road that is accessible to available forested areas.

Locating the Best Landing Sites (High optimal path density) COMPUTE Discrete_cost Times Forests for Dcost_forests 5) SPREAD Landing_candidates to 200 THRU Dcost _forests Simply for Accum_proximity 4) Accum_proximity Landing_candidates 5 Optimal. Path_density 6 The Accum_proximity map identifies the forest areas accessible from the Landing_Candidates as a continuous surface of effective distance. Dcost forests 4 Discrete_cost 6) DRAIN Forests over Landing_accumulated_cost for Optimal. Path_density High_path. Density Landing_clumps 7 7) RENUMBER Optimal. Path_density assign 0 to 0 thru 40 (#5, 58 paths) assign 1 to 40 thru 1000 for High_path. Density (#2, 256 paths) Potential_Landings 8 8) (#6, 155 paths) COMPUTE High_path. Density (#9, 407 paths) Times Landing_candidates FOR Potential_landings (#4, 56 paths) Services the largest number of accessible forest locations (#13, 159 paths) Landing _candidates 9) CLUMP Potential_landings Diagonally AT 1 FOR Landing_clumps (#15, 785 paths) 9 The Landing_clumps map uniquely identifies the locations with the most accessible forests optimally connected

Identifying “Timbersheds” of the Best Landing Sites Landings_best Landings_Accessible_forest (#5, 58 paths) 10) (#2, 256 paths) RENUMBER Landing_clumps assign 0 to 1 assign 0 to 3 assign 0 to 7 thru 8 assign 0 to 10 thru 12 assign 0 to 14 assign 0 to 16 thru 50 for Landings_best 10 (#6, 155 paths) (#4, 56 paths) (#9, 407 paths) (#13, 159 paths) 11) SPREAD Landings_best to 200 thru D_cost_forest simply for (Landing #15, 785 paths) Landings_Accessible_forest 12) 11 RENUMBER Landings_Accessible_forest ASSIGNING -4 TO 80 THRU 200 FOR Timbersheds …considering a practical reach of 80 effective cell lengths Timbersheds #2 #5 #4 #6 #9 #13 Timbershed #15 740 cells *. 222 ac/cell = 164 acres The Timbersheds map identifies all of the accessible forest locations that are “optimally” skidded to each of the Landing sites.

(Nanotechnology) Geotechnology (Biotechnology) …enabling technology used in spatial reasoning, dialog and decision-making— Geotechnology is one of the three "mega technologies" for the 21 st century and promises to forever change how we conceptualize, utilize and visualize spatial relationships in scientific research and commercial applications (U. S. Department of Labor) Geographic Information Systems (map and analyze) Global Positioning System (location and navigation) Remote Sensing (measure and classify) GPS/GIS/RS The Spatial Triad Mapping involves precise placement of physical features and inventories (Discrete/Graphic) Map Analysis Where is Prescriptive Modeling Descriptive Mapping Why What and So What Modeling involves analysis of spatial relationships and patterns (Continuous/Numerical) …provides “tools” for investigating spatial patterns and relationships

A Logical Framework for Map Analysis Geotechnology – one of three “mega-technologies” for the 21 st Century Global Positioning System (Location and navigation) Remote Sensing (Measure and classify) Geographic Information Systems (Map and analyze) 70 s Computer Mapping (Automated cartography) 80 s Spatial Database Management (Mapping and geo-query) 90 s Map Analysis (Spatial relationships and patterns) 00 s Multimedia Mapping (Spatial relationships and patterns) Spatial Analysis (Geographic context) Map Analysis Toolbox Reclassify (single map layer; no new spatial information) Overlay (coincidence of two or more map layers; new spatial information) Proximity (simple/effective distance and connectivity; new spatial information) Neighbors (roving window summaries of local vicinity; new spatial information) Spatial Statistics (Numeric context) Surface Modeling (point data to continuous spatial distributions) Spatial Data Mining (interrelationships within and among maps) …for more information see www. innovativegis. com/basis/Papers/Other/GISmodeling. Framework/