Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Circuitscape GIS Tool Highlight by Starla Delorey

Circuitscape is an open source tool that applies circuit theory to identify connectivity conservation. It is currently being used to identify and prioritize wildlife corridors. Existing habitat areas are used as sources and sinks, cost factors are used to create a resistance map, and the tool calculates the probability of movement across the landscape. Gene flow can also be modeled using voltage.

In urban planning we could use this tool to model pedestrian traffic. We could identify the probability a community will be able to walk to a resource and use that information to identify areas we could improve. There must be many more applications of this tool. Please comment if you think of any!

For more information on this tool go to: