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INTRODUCTION TO ATTILA (ANALYTICAL TOOLS INTERFACE FOR LANDSCAPE ASSESSMENTS): AN ARCVIEW EXTENSION
Citation:
Ebert, D W., T G. Wade, AND D. Yankee. INTRODUCTION TO ATTILA (ANALYTICAL TOOLS INTERFACE FOR LANDSCAPE ASSESSMENTS): AN ARCVIEW EXTENSION. Presented at 1999 International Society for Conservation GIS Conference, Idllywild, CA, July 25-26, 1999.
Impact/Purpose:
The primary objectives of this research are to:
Develop methodologies so that landscape indicator values generated from different sensors on different dates (but in the same areas) are comparable; differences in metric values result from landscape changes and not differences in the sensors;
Quantify relationships between landscape metrics generated from wall-to-wall spatial data and (1) specific parameters related to water resource conditions in different environmental settings across the US, including but not limited to nutrients, sediment, and benthic communities, and (2) multi-species habitat suitability;
Develop and validate multivariate models based on quantification studies;
Develop GIS/model assessment protocols and tools to characterize risk of nutrient and sediment TMDL exceedence;
Complete an initial draft (potentially web based) of a national landscape condition assessment.
This research directly supports long-term goals established in ORDs multiyear plans related to GPRA Goal 2 (Water) and GPRA Goal 4 (Healthy Communities and Ecosystems), although funding for this task comes from Goal 4. Relative to the GRPA Goal 2 multiyear plan, this research is intended to "provide tools to assess and diagnose impairment in aquatic systems and the sources of associated stressors." Relative to the Goal 4 Multiyear Plan this research is intended to (1) provide states and tribes with an ability to assess the condition of waterbodies in a scientifically defensible and representative way, while allowing for aggregation and assessment of trends at multiple scales, (2) assist Federal, State and Local managers in diagnosing the probable cause and forecasting future conditions in a scientifically defensible manner to protect and restore ecosystems, and (3) provide Federal, State and Local managers with a scientifically defensible way to assess current and future ecological conditions, and probable causes of impairments, and a way to evaluate alternative future management scenarios.
Description:
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have become a powerful tool in the field of landscape ecology. A common application of GIS is the generation of landscape indicators, which are quantitative measurements of the status or potential health of an area (e.g. ecological region, watershed or county). The generation of these indicators can be a complex, lengthy undertaking, requiring substantial GIS expertise. The Landscape Ecology Branch in cooperation with U.S. EPA Region 4 and TVA are developing a user friendly interface to facilitate this process. The Landscape Analysis Tools Extension is an easy to use ArcView extension that calculates many commonly used landscape indicators. By providing an intuitive interface, the extension provides the ability to generate landscape indicators to a wide range of users, regardless of their GIS knowledge level.
Four groups of indicators are included in the extension: landscape characteristics, human stresses, physical characteristics, and riparian characteristics. Each group has a dialog to accept user input on which indicators to calculate and what input data to use. Once indicator values have been created, the extension has three types of output display available. The first displays areas ranked by individual indicator values, the second ranks areas by an index made up of two or more indicators, and the third displays a bar chart of selected areas and indicators.