ALI Conservation Scorecards Input Data Layers

In 2014 and 2015, the Arid Lands Initiative developed “Conservation Scorecards” for their Priority Core Areas (PCAs) and Priority Linkage Areas (PLAs). To create the scorecards, we collected numerous existing geospatial datasets that could help provide decision support for ALI land managers, then summarized them to the geometry of PCAs and PLAs (e.g., took the spatial mean of a Landscape Condition Model). To better understand the analysis, please read the report, “Assessing the Condition and Resilience of Collaborative Conservation Priority Areas in the Columbia Plateau Ecoregion,” available here. The PCA scorecards pdfs are attached to the main report as an appendix, and the PLA scorecards are included in a short addendum report, available here.

It is important to note that many of these models have since been updated by the data creators (e.g., The Nature Conservancy’s Climate Change Resilience model) and are therefore out of data. The original, older layers are provided here simply for the convenience of interested people with GIS capabilities who wish to further explore the input data, and also for analytical transparency. If anyone wishes to do additional analysis with this data, they are strongly encouraged to obtain up to date data sets from the data creators. The metadata for each layer indicates whether or not it is likely to have been updated (some are finalized), and also provides links to the appropriate data access websites. 

We did not receive permission to redistribute a few of the scorecard input layers, so they are not included. These are: “Probability of burning” (FSIM fire simulation model); “Future fire frequency” (MC2 vegetation model); and “Vegetation instability” (MC2 vegetation model). We also did not include the layers used to calculate the “Contribution to ALI targets” metrics because they are already available on ScienceBase, here. All data sets were clipped to the ALI’s analysis area and were projected to Web Mercator, in case the ALI ever wishes to make web services from these layers.