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

阿尔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，导致了对有效土地管理和生态管理战略的强烈需求。为满足这一需求，艾伯塔省政府于2008年通过了《土地使用框架》（LuF），旨在促进地方协作管理，通过该框架，工业、社区和政府共同努力，改进土地使用决策，使其符合区域规划准则，并降低当前生物多样性丧失的速度。因此，在阿尔伯塔省，迫切需要建立和维护一个共享的存储库，其中包含有关上述机构运作的景观状态的高质量地方信息。但是，到目前为止还没有这样的存储库。为了填补这一空白，我们将研究在地理信息系统（GIS）内利用现代遥感技术和数据集，目标是建立一个最新的本地生境信息库，可通过互联网提供给土地管理者和决策者。一旦完成，该项目将展示提供当地栖息地状况信息的策略，这将帮助我们确定阿尔伯塔省观察到的生物多样性变化的原因。此外，该研究将有助于我们预测不同管理方案可能导致的未来生物多样性状况。我们的工作旨在使阿尔伯塔省的工业、政府和非政府组织受益，并为其他省级和国家监测项目提供一个实际的例子。

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.