@mastersthesis {444, title = {A GIS framework for modelling wildlife species distributions}, year = {1998}, type = {phdPh.D.}, abstract = {Maps of wildlife species distributions are a fundamental display of data in biogeography, and increasingly GIS methods are used to develop models of distributions. This dissertation examines some of the major issues in constructing predictive maps of species, focusing on the capability of GIS to relate environmental factors to distributions through logical or mathematical inference. The dissertation is structured in three parts. The first part considers how a variety of data sources may be aggregated to build up a picture of a distribution, using the example of the orange-throated whiptail, a lizard species living in southern California. It discusses how structuring these data on a hierarchy of spatial scales can lead to new inferences about distributions and habitat relationships. The second and third sections elaborate this theme of data availability and spatial scale in distribution modelling, using the example of the feral pig in central California. The second section presents a case study of developing an expert system to predict relative pig abundance at a regional scale. It illustrates how an expert system provides a formal treatment of aggregation of evidence, and how increasing the degree of interaction with a GIS can lead to elicitation of better models from domain experts. The third section presents a habitat model for the feral pig at a local scale. The grain size of this model is very finely resolved with respect to the home range of a pig, so this model integrates habitat elements over the home range size of the animal to create a spatially sensitive model of habitat quality. This model is tested against observation data at a number of different spatial scales, the results illustrating that it is important to recognize the spatial scale of a habitat model when it is applied.}, keywords = {evidence, expert system, GIS, inference, scale, wild pigs, wildlife modeling}, author = {Hollander, A. D.} } @inbook {361, title = {Mapping and monitoring terrestrial biodiversity using geographic information systems}, booktitle = {Biodiversity and Terrestrial Ecosystems}, volume = {Monograph Series No. 14}, year = {1994}, pages = {461-471}, publisher = {Institute of Botany, Academia Sinica}, organization = {Institute of Botany, Academia Sinica}, address = {Taipei}, abstract = {Location in space and time are attributes of nearly all biodiversity data. Obvious examples include species{\textquoteright} collection localities, range maps and habitat maps. Geographic Information Systems for managing and analyzing spatial data are rapidly becoming an integral tool for scientists, resource managers and policy makers concerned with biodiversity conservation and ecosystem management. Database capabilities of GIS have extended the traditional map to a much more flexible and powerful representation of spatial information by allowing potentially large amounts of non-graphical information to be attached to each map unit. Biologists have yet to fully exploit this aspect of GIS in classification and mapping of biodiversity patterns. Some advantages of the GIS model over traditional maps are illustrated with a vegetation mapping project in southern California. In recent years GIS has been applied to a wide range of biodiversity issues, for example, modeling species distributions, Gap Analysis, population viability analysis, modeling ecosystem disturbance processes, and projecting the ecological impacts of global climate change. Specimen data can be of much greater use in conservation planning when coupled to predictive habitat relationship models and accurate habitat maps. The use of GIS to assemble multiple lines of evidence in modeling species{\textquoteright} distribution is illustrated for Cnemidophorus hyperythrus, an endangered lizard of coastal southern California. Lastly, an example is provided of the application of GIS modeling of habitat suitability and connectivity to conservation planning in southern California.}, keywords = {biodiversity, connectivity, evidence, GIS, southern California, whiptail}, author = {Davis, F. W.}, editor = {Chou, C. I. Peng and C. H.} }