GreenLinks: A Tool To Better Integrate Transportation and Landscape-Level Conservation Planning

GreenLinks uses a landscape-level approach to identify a shared vision of conservation priorities among multiple partners, many of whom are involved in transportation planning.  The project is an outgrowth of the 2006 federal initiative “Eco-logical: An Ecosystem Approach to Developing Infrastructure Projects” which builds a framework for melding infrastructure and conservation planning.  It provides an objective, science-based tool for better landscape planning.  The project goals were to: 1) strategically protect and manage a connected network of conservation lands essential for sustaining the area’s diverse ecological functions and values into the future; 2) provide a framework for planning land development activities, including transportation projects; and 3) identify opportunities for locating parks, trails, and other green space to benefit human use. 

The result is a GIS-based tool that can be added to ArcGIS projects to assist planners in identifying lands of highest priority conservation value within a 10-county area in northwest Florida.  Products include a Conservation Priority Database with 50 data layers and five GreenLinks models.  Each model builds upon the other, with the two principle models being the GreenLinks Regional CLIP and GreenLinks Priority Model.  The Regional CLIP uses additional data sets to refine Florida’s statewide Critical Lands and Waters Identification Project (CLIP) to capture regional priorities.  The GreenLinks Priority Model uses an overlay model with the Regional CLIP to further define priorities within the highest priority Regional CLIP layer.  This allows users to identify the “highest of the high” conservation priority areas.  All products are available to the public at:  http://www.fws.gov/panamacity/greenlinksproducts.html