FY2014The Conservation Biology Institute (CBI) will work with the Great Basin to develop a Conservation Planning Atlas (also commonly called gateways) using Data Basin technology (www.databasin.org) to serve the data integration, collaboration and partner engagement needs.
Conservation Planning Atlases (CPA) are a customized interface of the Data Basin platform that include special branding, curation of spatial content, direct links to selected sites (e.g., other LCC Conservation Planning Atlas (e.g., nplcc.databasin.org), additional upload capacity if needed, and access to premium analytical tools. The CPA will allow Great Basin LCC staff and stakeholders to integrate spatial information to coordinate and promote conservation throughout the region. By default, the CPA will include all existing functionality of Data Basin, but will be tailored to meet specific project needs. Data Basin is composed of multiple components that can be easily customized (e.g., user-defined working groups, access to all of Data Basin, and analytical tools).
FY2015Funds for Modification #4 will continue the project work by using Miradi, a tool to support the Open Standards, will be the tool to represent and document Key Ecological Attributes (KEAs) and indicators across the entire geography. KEAs are those aspects of a conservation target/element that are essential to understand its condition & viability. Spatial maps will be developed to represent the spatial heterogeneity of the condition of targets. Information will eventually be displayed on an interactive web-based tool. Funds will also be used for continuation developing a Conservation Planning Atlas (also commonly called gateways) using Data Basin technology (www.databasin.org) to serve the data integration, collaboration and partner engagement needs and integration with California Climate Commons.
In developing this assessment, we will map the spatial condition of KEAs and their associated indicators using 4 different values that correspond to the Open Standards work: Poor, Fair, Good, and Very Good. The thresholds for determining these values will be defined through an expert solicitation process that precedes the mapping.
Modification #4 continues the overall goal of the project: to develop a collaborative Landscape Conservation Design (LCD) for the NW Basin and Range region. This is a highly synthetic process of bringing together existing information, expert solicitation, and plan review to understanding condition, threats, and strategies across the landscape. Thus, we are calling this the NW Basin & Range Synthesis (NWBRS). This project is using the Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation (Open Standards) as a primary tool to conceptualize and synthesize ecological information across jurisdictional boundaries the project. A critical part of the project is to identify the current condition and future threats of conservation targets.
FY2015In this second phase of the project we would like to document what we have found so far in a peer reviewed publication to share more widely our findings with colleagues. More importantly we want to take the opportunity of having developed a relationship with interviewees and continue the interviews including more managers, particularly those who have contacted us to be part of the surveys. We will test improved new climate web tools such as CBI’s climate console. In particular we will explore the addition of near-term climate forecast delivery, which was requested by most survey participants.
FY2016Conservation Biology Institute (CBI) will continue to perform spatial analysis for a collaborative landscape conservation effort focused in the Northwest Great Basin region. The GBLCC, in partnership with the USFWS, Resilient Landscapes Collaborative, and others will develop a Landscape Conservation Design for the western half of the Northern Basin and Range Ecoregion.
The purpose of Modification #