Spatial Priorities Research Articles

Clearing the Mud from the Conservation Opportunity Debate: Reply to Pressey and Bottrill

We are delighted that Pressey and Bottrill (2008) agreewith the message conveyed in Knight and Cowling(2007), namely, that the effectiveness of conservation-planning initiatives can be greatly improved when op-portunities for and constraints on implementing conser-vation action are explicitly incorporated into the identi-fication of spatial priorities. Pressey and Bottrill (2008),however, contend we “muddied the water” on the op-portunism debate by (1) discounting the contributionsto real-world conservation of researchers pursuing quan-tifiable certainty at the expense of useful outputs anddistinguishing these researchers from those engaged inpragmatic real-world conservation planning, (2) statingthat incorporation of measures of threat in spatial pri-oritizations “unnecessarily emphasizes obstacles to con-servation action or ‘shackles conservation planning witha negative perspective’,” and (3) conflating 2 differentmeanings of the term

Avoiding Costly Conservation Mistakes: The Importance of Defining Actions and Costs in Spatial Priority Setting

BackgroundThe typical mandate in conservation planning is to identify areas that represent biodiversity targets within the smallest possible area of land or sea, despite the fact that area may be a poor surrogate for the cost of many conservation actions. It is also common for priorities for conservation investment to be identified without regard to the particular conservation action that will be implemented. This demonstrates inadequate problem specification and may lead to inefficiency: the cost of alternative conservation actions can differ throughout a landscape, and may result in dissimilar conservation priorities.Methodology/Principal FindingsWe investigate the importance of formulating conservation planning problems with objectives and cost data that relate to specific conservation actions. We identify priority areas in Australia for two alternative conservation actions: land acquisition and stewardship. Our analyses show that using the cost surrogate that most closely reflects the planned conservation action can cut the cost of achieving our biodiversity goals by half. We highlight spatial differences in relative priorities for land acquisition and stewardship in Australia, and provide a simple approach for determining which action should be undertaken where.Conclusions/SignificanceOur study shows that a poorly posed conservation problem that fails to pre-specify the planned conservation action and incorporate cost a priori can lead to expensive mistakes. We can be more efficient in achieving conservation goals by clearly specifying our conservation objective and parameterising the problem with economic data that reflects this objective.

Balancing multiple mutualists: asymmetric interactions among plants, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, and fungal endophytes

Most organisms engage in beneficial interactions with other species; however, little is known regarding how individuals balance the competing demands of multiple mutualisms. Here we examine three‐way interactions among a widespread grass, Schedonorus phoenix, a protective fungal endophyte aboveground, Neotyphodium coenophialum, and nutritional symbionts (arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi) belowground. In a greenhouse experiment, we manipulated the presence/absence of both fungi and applied a fertilizer treatment to individual plants. Endophyte presence in host plants strongly reduced mycorrhizal colonization of roots. Additionally, for plants with the endophyte, the density of endophyte hyphae was negatively correlated with mycorrhizal colonization, suggesting a novel role for endophyte abundance in the interaction between the symbionts. Endophyte presence increased plant biomass, and there was a positive correlation between endophyte hyphal density and plant biomass. The effects of mutualists were asymmetric: mycorrhizal fungi treatments had no significant impact on the endophyte and negligible effects on plant biomass. Fertilization affected all three species – increasing plant biomass and endophyte density, but diminishing mycorrhizal colonization. Mechanisms driving negative effects of endophytes on mycorrhizae may include inhibition via endophyte alkaloids, altered nutritional requirements of the host plant, and/or temporal and spatial priority effects in the interactions among plants and multiple symbionts.

Developing products for conservation decision‐making: lessons from a spatial biodiversity assessment for South Africa

ABSTRACTSouth Africa's first national assessment of spatial priorities for biodiversity conservation, released in 2005, aimed to identify conservation priority areas for mainstreaming into all sectors at national and provincial scales. This National Spatial Biodiversity Assessment (NSBA) was based on a planning for implementation approach in order to deliver defensible products useful to decision‐makers. The NSBA aimed to produce a map of broad‐scale priority areas for future finer‐scale assessment and conservation action. This map summarized information on species, ecosystems, ecological processes, and the pressures they face from human activities. Owing to the complexity of the priority area map, two additional user‐friendly products — maps of ecosystem status and protection levels — were developed. These products represented the habitat loss and protected area coverage of South Africa's ecosystems relative to their conservation targets. A year after release, we reflect on the NSBA process, products and uptake by implementing agencies (with a specific focus on the terrestrial biodiversity assessment) in order to contribute to the growing body of documented best practice in conservation planning. The ecosystem status product has been widely used at national and provincial scales due in large to its clear and compelling message. The protection level and overall priority map have also witnessed uptake, the former in guiding the expansion of protected areas and the latter as an integrated map of national biodiversity status. The strong collaboration of local planners and implementers with in‐depth experience of biodiversity assessment, using a systematic approach and focusing on communicating a few high level messages, appears to have contributed to the initial, successful uptake of the NSBA. We conclude with a call to address data and monitoring shortcomings before the next NSBA in 2010.

How can you conserve species that haven't been found?

How can you conserve species that haven't been found?

Multicriteria Spatial Decision Analysis in Web GIS Environment

Internet, a client/server system, is a perfect means of GIS data accessing, analyzing and transmission. The World Wide Web, FTP (file transfer protocol) and HTTP programs make it convenient to access and transfer data files across the Internet. Using Internet for GIS makes it easy access to acquire GIS data from diverse data sources in the distributed environment. The geospatial multicriteria decision analysis in a client/server environment is an important and challenging task for the GIS community because of narrow Internet bandwidth for large geospatial data sets. In the present paper, we are developing a multicriteria decision analysis tool for spatial decision making in the web GIS environment. The developed system has been demonstrated for biodiversity conservation and priorities. An attempt has been made to generate the alternative decisions based on priority vectors. The multicriteria technique of Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is used to derive the eigen vectors with the given multiple constraints of conflicting criteria and aims at selecting optimal alternative from the available sets. However, the evaluation recognizes the importance of expert knowledge when assigning the weights for the best spatial priorities. Comparing within classes and alternatives using judgment and decision matrix is based on Saaty's Pairwise Comparison. The Multicriteria Spatial Decision Support System (MC-SDSS) software development uses ASP, ArcIMS 9.0, ArcSDE9.0 and Oracle 9i data server in the web GIS environment. The database organization of spatial and non-spatial data is done in the RDBMS environment using ArcSDE and Oracle 9i data server.

Optimal Expansion of Water Quality Monitoring Network by Fuzzy Optimization Approach

River reaches are frequently classified with respect to various mode of water utilization depending on the quantity and quality of water resources available at different location. Monitoring of water quality in a river system must collect both temporal and spatial information for comparison with respect to the preferred situation of a water body based on different scenarios. Designing a technically sound monitoring network, however, needs to identify a suite of significant planning objectives and consider a series of inherent limitations simultaneously. It would rely on applying an advanced systems analysis technique via an integrated simulation-optimization approach to meet the ultimate goal. This article presents an optimal expansion strategy of water quality monitoring stations for fulfilling a long-term monitoring mission under an uncertain environment. The planning objectives considered in this analysis are to increase the protection degree in the proximity of the river system with higher population density, to enhance the detection capability for lower compliance areas, to promote the detection sensitivity by better deployment and installation of monitoring stations, to reflect the levels of utilization potential of water body at different locations, and to monitor the essential water quality in the upper stream areas of all water intakes. The constraint set contains the limitations of budget, equity implication, and the detection sensitivity in the water environment. A fuzzy multi-objective evaluation framework that reflects the uncertainty embedded in decision making is designed for postulating and analyzing the underlying principles of optimal expansion strategy of monitoring network. The case study being organized in South Taiwan demonstrates a set of more robust and flexible expansion alternatives in terms of spatial priority. Such an approach uniquely indicates the preference order of each candidate site to be expanded step-wise whenever the budget limitation is sensitive in the government agencies.

Quantitative results assessing design issues of selection-supportive menus

As a list of menu items becomes longer, users have increasing difficulty finding the desired item. Researchers have noticed that some menu items are selected more frequently than others, and have suggested various kinds of adaptive menus that support the selection of these high-frequency items. In this paper, we investigate existing selection-supportive menus and find that they support the selection of high-frequency items by providing them with either spatial or spatio–temporal priority. For example, split menus (ACM Trans. Comput. Human Interaction 1 (1994) 27–51) offer spatial priority and the menus of Microsoft Office 2000 provides both spatial and temporal priority. This finding leads us to define a new type of adaptive menu that provides only temporal priority, where only high-frequency items are displayed at first. A controlled experiment was performed to assess the issues involved in the design of adaptive menus. The results revealed that each type of adaptive menu has both strengths and weaknesses. Spatial prioritization significantly decreases the selection time of high-frequency items if the variations in selection frequency are small; however, if the selection frequency distribution changes greatly, then the mean selection time rapidly deteriorates. In comparison, temporal selection-support is less effective at reducing selection time for high-frequency items, but is more robust due to its insensitivity to variations in selection frequency. Based on experimental data, quantitative criteria are provided to assist designers when deciding which type of menu to use. Relevance to industryThere exist several types of adaptive menus that support menu selection tasks. Designers of commercial applications must decide whether to adopt adaptive menus, and, if so, which of the menu styles to implement. Although there have been discussions of the advantages and disadvantages of the various types of adaptive menus, designers have not been provided with quantitative data to assist in making these decisions. This paper provides a quantitative assessment of the design tradeoffs involved in using adaptive menus.

Sustainable Development and Social Justice: Spatial Priorities and Mechanisms for Delivery

In most treatments of social justice, little consideration is given to spatial concerns. However, it is increasingly evident that spatial or territorial factors play a major role in determining life chances and in helping to deliver social inclusion. This paper considers the key theoretical issues that underpin the spatial dimension of social justice. From this, the paper progresses to examining the factors that have influenced the introduction of sociospatial development as a component part of the adoption of the sustainable development paradigm. Illustrations are provided of the outcome of this new model including the construction of the European Spatial Development Perspective and the introduction of Community Planning in Scotland. A final section looks forward to the wider adoption of a sociospatial approach to policy development and implementation.

Biodiversity and endemism mapping as a tool for regional conservation planning – case study of the Pleurothallidinae (Orchidaceae) of the Andean rain forests in Bolivia

Analyses of species diversity and endemism patterns provide vital inputs for conservation planning. Therefore, it is an important dilemma of biodiversity conservation that in very diverse but poorly studied tropical countries those patterns can hardly be considered. Consequently, there is an urgent need to develop prediction models that make the best use of existing data on species distribution and that can give hints on spatial conservation priorities. This paper presents the results of a pilot study on the diversity of the orchid subtribe Pleurothallidinae (331 mapped species) in the Andean rain forests of Bolivia. Results of a taxon-based mapping methodology, using abiotic (humidity and temperature, the latter indicated by altitude) and historical factors (taken into account as distance from collection localities) that determine species ranges, are compared with outcomes of an inventory-based mapping approach. The patterns of taxon-based diversity and endemism show a strong correlation with the distribution of sample localities. The inventory-based approach is more reliable, but it is interesting to apply both mapping methods in order to make a critical interpretation and comparison that facilitates some valuable conservation recommendations. We end with concrete conclusions for conservation planning and action.

Are Spatially Focused Initiatives in Current Economic Inclusion Policies Well Founded?

This study examines the appropriateness of the New Deal in targeting specific groups of unemployed job-seekers. This was achieved using a survey of unemployed job-seekers carried out prior to the implementation of the New Deal framework in April 1998. A sample of 169 unemployed job-seekers in two Travel to Work Areas in central Scotland is divided into those who were successful and those who were un successful in finding employment an d each group is analysed in terms of a set of labour market related attributes. The study generates a 'typical' profile for those who were successful in job search and a 'typical' profile for those who were less successful. These are compared and contrasted with the New Deal target groups. The findings support most of the target grouping basis of the policy but not all and we conclude that the generic aim of the New Deal, to reduce social exclusion , is un likely to be achieved as effectively if spatial priorities, focused on the most deprived areas, are allowed to supersede the needs of the individual job-seeker.

The Holy Spirit and Mission in Some Contemporary Theologies of Mission

AbstractIn 1990, Pope John Paul II spoke of the Spirit as "the principal agent of mission," a statement that can provoke a variety of perceptions of the contemporary practice of mission. In this article I wish to show how the mission of the Spirit enjoys chronological and spatial priority over the mission of Jesus through an examination of the work of some contemporary theologians. An emphasis on the chronological and spatial priority of the Spirit opens up, first, new possibilities for those who favor interreligious dialogue rather than an emphasis on proclamation and proselytization as privileged ways of being missionary. Second, it offers support to women who have long experienced the negative impact of androcentric Christologies in both church and society. Third, the universal presence of the Spirit in creation is an invitation for contemporary women and men to redefine their relationship to the rest of creation, for the Spirit's immanence in all creation should call for a retreat from exploitative attitudes to nature. Fourth, the energizing and vivifying power of the Spirit could challenge that institutional inertia that can encourage the church to think of church expansion and growth as the legitimate goal of missionary activity. But to speak of the Spirit as "the principal agent of mission" also requires that we need to redefine our understanding of the relationship between the Spirit and the Jesus of history. This redefinition is important, for to move from a narrow Christocentrism or theocentrism to a theology of mission that could appear to delink the Spirit from the Father and Son in favor of understanding the Spirit as a "cosmic force," a "cosmic energy" is as limiting as the problem it tries to resolve.

Reknowing the Bicycle;

Reknowing the Bicycle;

Planning regional development: Promoting small settlements in a trans-frontier situation

Under communism local authorities tended to be largely passive bystanders in a regional development process which emerged through the central planning process through the spatial allocations of investment by government ministries. Attention was given to physical planning, but comparatively little material entered the public domain on location policy and spatial priorities generally, apart from the objective of greater equality between regions and a commitment to backward areas generally. Now that much investment is down to private enterprise and government has become more decentralised and accountable, there is a need for concepts and strategies to coordinate public sector investment and provide guidelines for the evaluation of private development proposals. At the same time, there is an open competition for investment which requires communities to promote themselves in terms of their identity and development potential. This paper offers an overview by taking two countries - Hungary and Romania - where progress can be compared and where the focus can be placed on a common frontier which is diverting attention from conventional regional planning to cross-border cooperation. In both contexts however, attention is given to the ways in which planning can divert investment away from the main centres to the peripheral areas, including action to strengthen the role of small towns and also to improve cohesion among functionally-related groups of settlements and communes.

Using higher-taxon richness as a surrogate for species richness: II. Local applications

Recent analyses confirm that urgent attempts to catalogue the distribution of biological diversity may be facilitated by focusing at the level of genera or families rather than species. However, questions remain over the application of higher-taxon surveys to identify networks of priority areas for conservation action. Is the close spatial match between species and higher-taxon richness at global and regional scales re-iterated when sites are locally distributed? How much money is saved by the higher-taxon approach? And how does using genus or family information affect the efficiency with which spatial priorities for conservation are identified? We examined these issues using data on the diversity of woody plants in Sri Lankan forests. We found that at this local scale, the family and particularly generic richness of sites was closely linked to their species richness, independently of variation in site size. Moreover, fieldwork in an additional forest showed that targeting woody plant genera and families rather than species reduced survey costs by a minimum of 60% and 85% respectively. Most importantly, while using family data in site-selection algorithms led to the loss from reserve networks of around 7-10% of woody plant species, using genera rather than species had virtually no effect on the representation of species in priority sites. These results thus confirm that judicious use of the higher-taxon approach is indeed a valuable technique for improving the cost effectiveness of field surveys for local conservation planning in the tropics.

QUANTITATIVE METHODS FOR PRELIMINARY DESIGN OF WATER QUALITY SURVEILLANCE SYSTEMS1

ABSTRACT: To assure attainment and maintenance of desired water quality levels in our rivers and streams, systematic monitoring must be performed. A preliminary phase of the design of water quality surveillance systems is the specification of sampling frequencies and station locations throughout the basin; that is, the development of an adequate space/time sampling plan. The purpose of this paper is to present some quantitative methods which have been developed to identify candidate sets of sampling frequencies and station locations, and to establish priorities for implementing the different frequencies and locations. These methods are useful in the cost/effectiveness trade‐off analyses in surveillance system design, and are based on the surveillance system objective of pollution abatement in which it is desired to detect violations in state‐federal water quality standards. A spatial priority measure is developed which is dependent both on the water quality profile in the stream and on the information obtained from monitoring stations located in other reaches. Also, a temporal sampling priority rating is presented which is a measure of the effectiveness of the surveillance system with respect to its ability to detect the violations in the standards. To illustrate the quantitative methods, the procedures are applied to the Wabash River Basin.

US Foreign Policy at the Initial Stage of the Cold War

The article examines the formation of the main directions of the US foreign policy strategy at the beginning of the Cold War. The focus is on determining the vectors of the United States in relation to the spatial priorities of the US foreign policy, the particular interests in the respective regions, the content of means and methods of influence for the realization of their own geopolitical interests. It is argued that the main regions that the United States identified for itself in the early postwar years were Europe, the Middle and Far East, and the Middle East and North Africa were the peripheral ones (attention was also paid to Latin America). It is stated that the most important priorities of American foreign policy were around the perimeter of the zone of influence of the USSR, which entered the postwar world as an alternative to the US center of power. Attention is also paid to US foreign policy initiatives such as the Marshall Plan and the 4th Point Program, which have played a pivotal role inshaping American foreign policy in the postwar period.