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Florida_Panther_Corridor_Model (FeatureServer)

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Service Description: Florida Panther Corridor Model

Service ItemId: df68825bd20342f0b4968270bd86c701

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Description: Identifying Least Cost Paths/Corridors for Florida Panther within South-Central Florida 12/18/22 Our aim was to identify potential pathways and corridors that panthers are likely to use under existing land cover/land use conditions from the current species core range (south of the Caloosahatchee River) to large habitat hubs north of Interstate 4 (The Green Swamp and Ocala National Forest). The focus being on predicted panther movements and natural range expansion within the south-central Florida region. Methods: To perform the Least Cost-Path (LCP) and -Corridor (LCC) analyses, we used the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) cooperative land cover v3.4 polygon data layer. First, we performed manual revisions to update coding inaccuracies and land use changes in the study area that occurred up to the Fall of 2021 (using Google Earth imagery for comparison). Second, we used the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s 2012 Panther Habitat Assessment Methodology Classification for calculating Panther Habitat Unit (PHU) valuations to lump land cover classes for use in the LCP/LCC models. We adapted the original FWC land cover classes (192 found within the study area) by consolidating them into 17 classes closely corresponding to the FWS methodology classification categories. In addition, special designations were made for wildlife crossing structures (base score=1.0) and wildlife fencing (base score=40). The LCP/LCC analyses were performed using ArcGIS Desktop 10.8. The first step was to create a cost surface from the manually updated FWC existing land cover layer. The original polygons were converted to raster at 10 m resolution. Next, the raster layers were reclassified into the 17 general land cover categories and converted to integers by multiplying by 10. The result was the base (original) cost surface layers consisting of values (x) ranging from 1 to 400 (Note that the value zero cannot be processed in the algorithm so it was changed to the value 1). We also created a second set of cost surface layers consisting of the inverse (1/x) of the base values. The two cost surface algorithms (x; 1/x) generate somewhat different results that are useful in evaluating “alternative” pathways that panthers might select. Two factors interplay in determining the least-cost path: habitat quality and distance between target locations that the pathway is plotted. The base cost surface layers consisting of integer values places somewhat greater emphasis on higher quality habitat, while the inverse function (a floating decimal value) places somewhat greater emphasis on shorter distance. We ran least-cost path on both cost surfaces. Least-cost corridor was only run on the inverse (1/x) cost surface. The second step was to identify target locations to plot least cost pathways and corridors between. We identified 34 target locations of protected conservation lands within the Florida Ecological Greenways Network [FEGN 2021]. These included larger conservation reserve areas or hubs that could potentially support breeding populations and smaller “stepping-stone” conservation areas and linkages that would serve as functional habitat connections for dispersing individuals. Location and size of the target area polygon within each respective conservation area was selected to generate multiple, optional pathways emerging from within each conservation area. In the third step for the LCP process, we created cost backlink (neighboring cell and path direction functions) and cost distance (accumulative costs) raster layers necessary to create the least cost paths. Next, we used the cost path polyline option to plot line features connecting the various target locations. The cost distance raster layers created for the third step in the LCP process were also required in the LCC process to create predictive, connecting corridors. The corridor tool was used to calculate the accumulated cost of the two cost distance raster layers associated with the source and destination target locations. The resulting raster layer was then sliced into 7 graduated classes using Jenks Natural Breaks. Next, we applied an exclusion threshold that only retained the narrowest range of values while maintaining the 7 graduated classes. We chose the 3 lowest classes to represent primary, secondary and tertiary corridors. These were converted to polygon features. Results: The least cost path analysis resulted in the creation of 76 separate pathways between the 34 target conservation areas. The total length of the pathways was 2,284.4 mi, average length was 30 mi, minimum length was 2.6 mi and maximum length was 93.3 mi. The results of the least cost corridor analysis include a total of 54 corridors created between the 34 target conservation areas. In many cases the secondary and tertiary represent buffers to the primary corridors. Please consult the project summary report for more discussion of the methods and results as well as an evaluation based on other resource data layers.

Copyright Text: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Florida Panther Recovery Implementation Team - Transportation Subteam; GIS analysis and mapping conducted by Daniel J. Smith, Dept. of Biology, University of Central Florida

Spatial Reference: PROJCS["NAD_1983_HARN_Albers",GEOGCS["GCS_North_American_1983_HARN",DATUM["D_North_American_1983_HARN",SPHEROID["GRS_1980",6378137.0,298.257222101]],PRIMEM["Greenwich",0.0],UNIT["Degree",0.0174532925199433]],PROJECTION["Albers"],PARAMETER["False_Easting",400000.0],PARAMETER["False_Northing",0.0],PARAMETER["Central_Meridian",-84.0],PARAMETER["Standard_Parallel_1",24.0],PARAMETER["Standard_Parallel_2",31.5],PARAMETER["Latitude_Of_Origin",24.0],UNIT["Meter",1.0]]

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