Planning for biodiversity restoration at large scales using GIS-based data.

摘要

Landscape-scale restoration is required in the Goulburn Broken Catchment, Victoria, Australia, to conserve biodiversity and restore ecological function in fragmented landscapes. This is a difficult task because planning is required across large areas(100,000's of hectares), and much of the restoration needs to occur on private land. To date there has been a lack of ecological science used in management and planning of land-use change. The authors' role within the Government agencies, is to bridge the gap between science and 'on-ground' works. The aim of this project is to document the use of a GIS spatial data model, the 'Landscape Context Model', which is being used to develop priorities for landscape restoration. The model uses tree cover, waterways and wetlands as surrogates for biodiversity, and applies size and distance parameters to identify larger habitat areas and linkages across landscapes, as well as identifying areas where habitats are small and isolated. The high priority areas identified by the Landscape Context Model were verified by results from a field-survey-based approach to identifying priority areas. While there have been several models of priorities for biodiversity conservation, these are not necessarily being utilised for on-ground works. The Landscape Context Model is being used by government agencies in Victoria in planning for biodiversity conservation, particularly in identifying target areas and the issuing of grants to landholders for on-ground works. It has been used in projects that use other GIS-based models that result in land-use change (e.g., salinity mitigation works, CarbonTender and BushTender) to identify target areas.