Description
Alberta Environment and Protected Areas and the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute (ABMI) jointly developed a Landscape Connectivity indicator for the province of Alberta. An Equivalent Connected Area index was selected to measure landscape connectivity and assess changes in connectivity over time. The indicator accounts for three broad land cover types: Upland Forests, Lowland Forests and Grasslands. Landscape connectivity for the three land cover types, and an aggregated value, were calculated for all Hydrological Unit Code 8 (HUC 8) watersheds in Alberta for 2010, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 using four GIS layers: the Human Footprint Inventories and the Wall-to-Wall Vegetation Layer Including “Backfilled” Vegetation created and maintained by the ABMI. the wildlife crossing locations in National Parks provided by Parks Canada, and the Hierarchical Watershed Boundaries created and maintained by the Government of Alberta. The calculations of connectivity accounted for the...