To create a wall-to-wall surface of landscape permeability we used the software CIRCUITSCAPE (McRae and Shah 2009), an innovative program that models species and population movements as if they were electric current flowing through a landscape of variable resistance. Circuit modeling is conceptually aligned with the concept of landscape permeability because it recognizes that movement through a landscape is affected by a variety of impediments, and it quantifies the degree and the directional outcomes of the compounding effects. One output is a “flow” map that shows the behavior of directional flows and highlights concentration areas and pinch-points.
The results can highlight locally and regionally significant places where species range shifts may be impeded or concentrated by anthropogenic or ecological resistance, and that may warrant conservation.The anthropogenic model is based solely on human-modified barriers such as roads and development and the resistance they create.