Plan and Design
This area of the portal provides our community with vital information in order to accomplish the vision of landscape-scale conservation planning and design. Conservation planning is a process that identifies and prioritizes lands that encompass important natural and/or cultural resources across the landscape (e.g., critical watersheds, habitat for rare or threatened species) and develops protection and management strategies for these lands. Science is at the core of planning, but the science is informed by groups of stakeholders using their on-the-ground knowledge and expertise.
Where planning is the process, conservation design is the product. It can be a series of maps or data layers that illustrate the location of key focal landscapes and priority resources, or combined into decision support tools that can inform managers and conservations about the quality, quantity, and location of habitat needed to protect biodiversity. The successful conservation design product will provide public land managers, NGOs, and private landowners the ability to incorporate landscape data into their own local land-use decisions. The overall goal from the planning process and design products is to create interconnected reserves of managed lands that are resilient to the many environmental changes that are occurring rapidly on the landscape and can sustain biodiversity today and tomorrow.
Find below an overview of conservation planning science, GIS resources that aid in planning, products from our conservation design project, and online learning courses for partners wanting to utilize LCC-funded decision support tools in their conservation work.
Conservation Planning & GIS
The Conservation Planning & GIS Resources section of our Web Portal houses conservation planning literature and products as well as GIS resources such as spatial data and maps to help guide land managers with on-the-ground conservation action throughout the region.
Appalachian Naturescape: Conservation Design
A Conservation Design can be a series of maps or data layers that illustrate the location of key focal landscapes and priority resources, or combined into decision support tools that can inform managers and conservations about the quality, quantity, and location of habitat needed to protect biodiversity. The successful conservation design product will provide public land managers, NGOs, and private landowners the ability to incorporate landscape data into their own local land-use decisions.
Conservation Planning Atlas
The Appalachian LCC Conservation Planning Atlas (CPA) is a platform for data discovery, sharing and collaboration for stakeholders throughout the Appalachian LCC region. With the CPA you can search for spatial datasets, visualize LCC-supported projects, and learn more about conservation science and design in the region.
Training and Online Learning
This section of the Appalachian LCC Web Portal provides a place for learning about conservation tools, sharing upcoming announcements on training, and accessing the Science Applications Online Learning Center where partners can utilize tools and resources developed through LCC-funded research to aid in conservation work.
