Using Suitability Modeling to Protect Access to Rock Climbing Areas - Shannon Tattitch GIS Technician

Using Suitability Modeling to Protect
   Access to Rock Climbing Areas

                 Shannon Tattitch
                 GIS Technician
                 kbl364@mocs.utc.edu

• Came together in
• Founded in 1930s by        2012
  a pioneer in the Coca-   • Brings together
  Cola bottling              stakeholders across
  business, Thomas           TN, AL, and GA
  Cartter Lupton           • Tries to address
                             complexities of
• Leading supporter of       regional growth
  Chattanooga’s arts         through:
  and cultural life,           • Conservation
  schools, healthcare,         • Regional
  and natural                     Planning
  environment                  • Urban Design

Chattanooga Rises as a Town
•   The greater
    Chattanooga area
    saw a 9%
    population growth
    over the last ten
    years
•   Chattanooga named
    “Best Outdoor
    Town Ever” twice
    by Outside
    Magazine
•   Over 50 trailheads                                                        Source: Lookoutmountain,com
    and 150-miles of
    trails in the area •   This increases a need for greater conservation efforts against
                           human impact

Rock Climbing
Rises as a Sport
• The American Alpine Club
  estimated that climbing
  contributed $12.45 billion to the
  economy in 2017.
• Boosted by an increase in access
  to rock climbing gyms and gear,
  more workshops, guides, meet
  ups, competitions, documentaries,
  and social media.
• Climbing magazine called
  Chattanooga "America's New
  Climbing Capital"

The Southeastern
Climbing Coalition
(SCC) organization
teams up with Thrive
Regional Partnership and
the Lyndhurst
Foundation.

Project Objectives
• Use Survey123 for inventory and
  quality assessment of climbing areas
  owned or managed by the SCC across
  Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia

• Collect wayfinding and points of
  access to update property maps

• Use survey data points with other
  data initiatives to create a Suitability
  Model for conservation and a High
  Impact Model

• Combine the Suitability Model with
  the High Impact Model to create a
  Climbing Resource Management Plan

ESRI’s Green Infrastructure Initiative

   Intact Habitat Cores        Habitat Cost Surface

    Habitat Fragments     Habitat Cores By Connectivity

Intact Habitat Core
     Reading the Values:
       Higher Score =
    Greater Core Quality =
  Greater Conservation Value

• Minimally disturbed natural
  areas at least 100 acres in
  size and greater than 200
  meters wide.

• 53 attributes of landscape
  characteristics were overlaid
  to develop a “core quality
  index.”

Habitat Cores by
  Connectivity
     Reading the Values:
        Higher Score =
Greater Paths of Connectivity =
 Greater Conservation Value

The Chattanooga region and the
outskirts of the Cumberland Plateau
show to be essential in facilitating
landscape connectivity and potential
species movement.

Habitat Fragments
Minimally disturbed natural areas
that were not included in the Intact
Habitat Cores layer because they did
not meet the minimum requirements
related to size.

Habitat Cost Surface
          Reading the Values:
             Lower Cost =
Less Disruption to Species Movement =
      Greater Conservation Value

 • Reflects the relative ease of movement
   for terrestrial species
     • NLCD landcover classes
     • Slope
     • Proximity to water
     • Habitat core score

S
E
E
I
N
G

P
A
T
T
E
R
N
S

USGS Protected
   Areas Data
• National inventory of protected
  land and marine areas dedicated
  to preserve biological diversity,
  recreation, and cultural uses.

• Ran the Euclidean Distance
  Model to include the proximity
  to protected lands in our final
  model

Resilient Lands
   Reading the values:
Below Standard Deviation
         value =
Greater Conservation Value

• Identifies the areas estimated to be the
  most climate resilient for each of 62
  characteristic environments in Eastern
  North America.

• We reclassified this data and only included
  the above average areas for climate
  resiliency.

Data Recap
       Layer               Key Attribute                Source          Reclassification   Weight

                                                      Esri Green
Intact Habitat Cores         Core Score              Infrastructure           1-5            1
                                                       Initiative

Intact Habitat Cores                                  Esri Green
                          Centrality (Above
   by Connectivity                                   Infrastructure           1-5           0.5
                           average values)
     Importance                                         Initiative

                                                      Esri Green
 Habitat Fragments          Present/absent           Infrastructure           0,3           0.5
                                                        Initiative

                        Value of cost service,
                                                      Esri Green
Habitat Cost Surface     lower value, higher
                                                     Infrastructure           1-5            1
 (wildlife corridors)        priority for
                                                        Initiative
                            conservation

                        Final Resilience Score
                                                      The Nature
 Climate Resilience     (above average values                                 3-5            1
                                                      Conservancy
                                 only)

    Proximity to        Distance to Protected       IGTlab Regional
                                                                              1-5            1
  Protected Lands               Lands              Resource Inventory

F
I
    SCC Suitability Model for
N    Conservation Priority

A
L

O
U
T
P
U
T

Using the Suitability Modeling Tool
Manual Suitability Model   vs.   Suitability Modeling Tool

Again, my name is Shannon Tattitch.
       Thank you for joining!

 Feel free to email any questions to
   me at: kbl364@mocs.utc.edu