Goal
- To use various geoprocessing tools for vector analysis in ArcGIS.
- To produce a map for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) detailing suitable Black Bear habitat on DNR management lands withing a study area in central Marquette County.
Background
The Michigan DNR is looking to cultivate black bear habitat on the lands they manage within a study area in central Marquette County. Using provided data, I mapped prime locations, given particular criteria.
Provided Data
- Excel file containing the (X,Y) coordinates of confirmed black bear sightings within a study area
- Shape Files of the study area and its, land cover, and rivers
- Shape File of Marquette County DNR Management Lands
Habitat Criteria
- Land cover bears prefer, given the confirmed sightings
- Within 500 meters of a stream
- At least 5 kilometers from urban or built up and residential lands
- Within DNR Management lands
Note: This is a fictional scenario, using factual data.
Methods
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| Figure 1: Data Flow Model |
Objective 1 - Map Black Bear locations
- Added bear locations as an XY event theme
- Exported and saved Bear Locations in my geodatabase as a point feature class
Objective 2 - Determine the forest types where black bears are found
- Ran a spatial join between Bear Locations and Landcover that counted the number of bear locations within each land cover segment
- Summarized result based on the minor_cover field to count the total number of bear sightings in each type of land cover
- Noted top three land cover types with the most bear sightings
- Mixed Forest Land, 31
- Forested Wetlands, 17
- Evergreen Forestland 14
- Queried Landcover for the above listed land types and exported them into a new shapefile.
Objective 3 - Determine if bears are found near streams
- Buffered streams to 500 meters
- Clipped Bear Locations to buffered streams to count the number of bears found within 500 meters of a stream
- 49 of the 68 bears, or 72 percent of the bears were found withing 500 meters of a stream, a percentage considered biologically important
- Bears are found near rivers
Objective 4 - Find suitable bear habitat based on these to environmental features
- Intersected the buffered river and bear land cover shapefiles to find land that is both close to a river and on land types that bears like, Bear Habitat
Objective 5 - Select habitat within DNR Management lands
- DNR Management lands clipped to study area, DNR Mgmt. in Interest Area
- Intersected DNR Mgmt. in Interest Area with Bear Habitat to find suitable habitat that was managed by the DNR, Bear Habitat in DNR Mgmt. Area
Objective 6 - Eliminate urban lands populated by people
- Queried Landcover to select urban or built up and residential lands
- Exported selection to new layer, Human Infested Land
- Buffered Human Infested Land to five kilometers, Human Infested Areas
- Erased Human Infested Areas from Bear Habitat in DNR Mgmt. Area to find suitable lands for the DNR to cultivate Bear Habitat, Optimal Bear Habitat
- The last geoprocessing tool was ran using python, text as follows:
>>> arcpy.Erase_analysis
("DNR_mgmt_Habitat_Dissolve", "Humans_at_bay_dis",
"optimus_prime")
<Result
'H:\\Documents\\ArcGIS\\Default.gdb\\optimus_prime'>
Note for Geog. 335 Professor: Python didn't allow me to save to the Q drive, so optimus_prime was saved in my H drive and moved to the Q drive later.
Results
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| Figure 2: Map Produced |
Figure 2 is the map I created and would give to the Michigan DNR of highlighting prime locations to cultivate Black Bear habitat. The black squares with white bears in them denote the locations of Black Bears during the study. The green polygons highlight lands that have the type of cover that bears prefer, are within 500 meters of a stream, located within management areas, and at least 5 kilometers from urban areas.
Sources
All data is from State of Michigan Open GIS Data
- Landcover from USGS NLCD
- DNR management units
- Streams
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