Smart Infrastructure Planner (beta)

The Smart Infrastructure Planner (SIP) is a GIS toolkit that allows GIS practitioners to evaluate the compatibility of proposed infrastructure and land use developments with essential requirements for the conservation of wildlife and their habitat in a landscape context. The Smart Infrastructure Planner is compatible with ArcGIS versions 10 and 9.3. Required inputs include minor and major roads, towns and cities and land cover. Water sources, mines, poaching intensity and protected areas are optional inputs. The user is required to score layers according to habitat quality, and provide a minimum area for the conservation target being assessed that is consistent with ecological requirements or conservation goals.

Outputs include current and future habitat suitability layers, projected change in habitat suitability, and current and future landscape statistics that describe habitat change. These include habitat area, number of core habitat areas, perimeter to area ratio, and number and identity of connected habitat patches.