Full-coverage mapping and updating of habitat characteristics for regional biodiversity monitoring and integrated landscape management

艾伯塔省人口和以自然资源为基础的经济的持续增长和发展导致了对有效的土地管理和生态管理战略的强烈需求。艾伯塔省政府于2008年通过了土地利用框架(LUF)，以满足这一需求，旨在促进地方合作管理，让行业、社区和政府共同努力，改进土地利用决策，使之符合区域规划准则，并降低目前的生物多样性损失率。因此，艾伯塔省迫切需要建立和维护一个共享储存库，其中有关于上述代理人所在地区状况的高质量当地信息。然而，到目前为止，还不存在这样的存储库。为了填补这一空白，我们将在地理信息系统(地理信息系统)内开展利用现代遥感技术和数据集的研究，目标是创建一个可通过互联网向土地管理人员和决策者提供最新当地生境信息的储存库。一旦完成，该项目将展示提供关于栖息地状况的当地信息的战略，这将帮助我们确定艾伯塔省观察到的生物多样性变化背后的原因。此外，这项研究将帮助我们预测不同管理情景可能导致的未来生物多样性状况。我们的工作旨在使整个艾伯塔省的工业、政府和非政府组织受益，并为其他省和国家的监测项目提供实践范例。

The continuing growth and development of Alberta's population and natural resource-based economy has resulted in a strong need for effective land management and ecological stewardship strategies. The Land-use Framework (LuF), adopted by the Government of Alberta in 2008 to address this need, is designed to promote collaborative local management, whereby industry, communities, and governments work together to achieve improved land-use decision-making that meets regional planning guidelines, and reduce the current rate of biodiversity loss. As a result there is a pressing need in Alberta to create and maintain a shared repository with high-quality local-level information on the status of the landscapes in which the above agents operate. However, to date no such repository exists. To fill this gap, we will conduct research on the exploitation of modern remote sensing technologies and data sets within a Geographic Information System (GIS), with the goal of creating a repository of up-to-date local habitat information that can be made available to land managers and decision-makers through the internet. Once complete, this project will demonstrate a strategy for providing local information on habitat status, which will help us identify the causes that underlie observed changes in biodiversity in Alberta. In addition, this research will help us predict future biodiversity conditions that may result from different management scenarios. Our work is designed to benefit industrial, government, and non-governmental organizations throughout Alberta, and provide a practical example for other provincial and national monitoring programs.