Projects tagged #priority setting
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Global Priority Setting
Clients: US-AID EGAT/NRM.
For this project I developed an ArcView-based tool for ranking and displaying areas according to their biological value. Unlike optimization tools such as Marxan, the tool produces rankings of two-dimensional areas (e.g. countries, ecoregions) in map and list form. First, the users provide attributes (e.g. species richness and endemism) and optional weights. The tool then calculates rankings by arithmetic combination using a Euclidean distance measure.
This tool was recently used in two global biodiversity priority-setting exercises. In the first case, WWF-US used the tool to explore and evaluate ecoregions based on attributes such as species richness, endemism, and degree of protection. A 2005-2006 reorganization of their global programs was informed, in part, by the results of this exercise. In the second example, USAID recently used the tool for a similar exercise to rank countries by biological value. USAID is using the results to inform budgetary allocations for biodiversity conservation.
Publication on Ecoregions: Olson D.M., Dinerstein, E., Wikramanayake, E.D., Burgess, N.D., Powell, G.V.N, Underwood, E.C., D'amico, J.A., Itoua, I., Strand, H.E., Morrison, J.C., Loucks, C.J., Allnutt, T.F., Ricketts, T.H., Kura Y., Lamoreux, J.F., Wettengel, W.W., Hedao, P. and Kassem, K.R. 2001. Terrestrial Ecoregions of the World: A New Map of Life on Earth. BioScience 51:11 pp. 933-938.