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Science Seminar: A regional model for urban growth

Learn about the new probability of development model for the Northeast region and how it can inform conservation and planning.
When Dec 14, 2017
from 12:00 PM to 01:00 PM
Where U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Regional Office large auditorium, and online
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Please join us for a Science Seminar led by Ethan Plunkett of the Designing Sustainable Landscapes (DSL) project at the University of Massachusetts Amherst to learn about a new component of their suite of landscape conservation models: Sprawl, an urban growth model that simulates development 70 years into the future for the 13-state Northeast region. 

The Sprawl model produces maps of simulated future development and a map of probability of development across the region at the 30-meter resolution. Additionally, the team produced a set of maps that combine results from Sprawl with other models, including the Index of Ecological Integrity. The resulting maps can help practitioners look for areas of high value for ecological integrity or connectivity that are likely to be negatively impacted by urban growth. This information is directly useful to conservation planners who might wish to strategize around the risk of development. 

The Sprawl model is also a tool for evaluating conservation plans. It can be run with different parts of the landscape protected from urban growth to produce future landscapes that reflect various conservation plans which can then, in turn, be evaluated to asses the effectiveness of the conservation plan in achieving the goals of protecting ecosystems and species into the future. Sprawl is just one component of a suite of models developed by DSL to assess ecological value across the region and predict how the landscape changes that have been rolled into the Nature’s Network conservation design. 

Event details: The presentation will take place from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. on Thursday, December 14th, in the large auditorium of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Regional Office, at 300 Westgate Center Drive in Hadley, Mass. The event is free and open to the public, but visitors will be required to sign in at the front desk.

The presentation can also be viewed remotely though WebEx. 

Follow this link to view the presentation online.

Meeting number: 741 170 157

Meeting password: kTnmWN*4

Join the teleconference at: 1-866-762-5634

Attendee passcode: 69 87 529

For more information: Contact North Atlantic LCC Communications Coordinator Bridget Macdonald at [email protected]


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