New Support Tools for Assessing Park Habitat and System Integrity Across an Urban Landscape

New Support Tools for Assessing Park Habitat and System Integrity Across an Urban Landscape

Presenter:   Vanessa Carney

Date:               Thursday, May 19, 2016

Time:              12:00 noon to 1:00pm

Location:     Conference Room ‘A’, Husky Conference Centre, Calgary, AB
                            Plus 30 level, 707-8th Avenue SW (take the escalator up two flights)

CCP:               This presentation entitles ASPB members to earn 1 PDH

Cost:               Free to members and non-members

You do not need to register for this presentation.

WEBINAR LINK HERE

 For inquiries about this BBL, contact Jennifer Raffan

Summary

The City of Calgary manages approximately 8000 ha of parks space including 4000 ha of natural environment parks that vary in size, complexity and configuration. Many large regional natural areas such as the extensive grasslands of Nose Hill, mixed forest and riparian parks like Griffith Woods, the Weaselhead and Inglewood Bird Sanctuary, are popular places for Calgarians to visit and explore. Hundreds of small to medium-sized natural environments are also scattered within The City’s manicured park spaces and throughout the built urban landscape.
In addition to managing habitats across Calgary’s 450+ natural environment parks, The City’s Urban Conservation group is responsible for city-wide conservation of biodiversity and the identification and protection of environmentally significant areas in new subdivision development. In 2014, The City worked with Fiera Biological Consulting to develop tools aimed at rapidly describing the habitat quality of each of Calgary’s natural areas and to evaluate the ecological integrity of the overall Parks system. Two key goals have been realized so far.

Terrestrial Habitat Condition Rating model:
By determining the severity of the human footprint that impacts a natural environment park at a local scale, City staff are able to estimate the relative quality of a particular park using a habitat condition rating (HCR) scale. HCR scores will be used to benchmark park quality over time and assist in citywide prioritization of habitat and site management interventions.

Wildlife Connectivity model:
Through the development of a general wildlife connectivity model using Circuitscape software, The City is beginning to identify key movement corridors and potential barriers to wildlife flow across Calgary’s open space system. Using this tool, and citizen generated data (mined 3-1-1 and police roadkill-accident reports),Parks is aiming to identify priority corridors for protection, as well as opportunities for reconnection through naturalization and restoration projects.

Presenter Biography 

Vanessa has a Masters degree from University of Lethbridge in Biology. Her early career focused on applied ecology and entomology, particularly insect-plant and predator-prey interactions in biological control research. Since joining The City of Calgary in 2009, Vanessa has enjoyed the challenge of applying ecological theory and innovation to the urban setting. A self-described data nerd, her focus as Landscape Analysis Supervisor has been to develop spatial tools to get high quality information into the hands of Parks policymakers, operational staff and citizens through the use of GIS, data collection apps, interactive story maps and spatial analyses. Vanessa is keen on finding new ways to gather and interpret information to solve real world problems.

The ASPB is not responsible for the content of this presentation; the information and views expressed by the presenter(s) are their own.