CorridorDesigner
While I am the only full time staff on the CorridorDesigner project, I am collaborating closely with GIS programming whiz and consultant Jeff Jenness and Dr. Paul Beier. The impetus for this project came from the interest shown in my response to a CONSGIS listserv question about available software for designing wildlife corridors. We realized that although several groups have used GIS to design wildlife linkages, the necessary conceptual steps and specific GIS methods have not been documented adequately.
Our motivation for this project is to transfer everything we've learned about designing wildlife corridors to the general public to facilitate better conservation, science, and dialogue. To achieve this, we received a small grant to create tools for ArcGIS which streamline the modeling process and allow a user to evaluate alternative corridor designs. Additionally, we are creating tutorials, software documentation, workshops, and a comprehensive website detailing important decisions an analyst must make while designing corridors. All of this will be released for free by the end of June 2007.
GIS Programming
I am currently programming a set of toolboxes in Python for creating habitat and corridor models in ArcGIS. In addition to greatly improving my Python programming skills, this position has given me an appreciation for the complexity of organizing the unknown user's interaction with the tools I'm writing. Finding the balance between allowing flexibility in a user's potential modeling choices yet creating a framework rigid enough to manage the extensive modeling output has proven to be one of my greatest challenges.
Unfortunately, I do not have graphics illustrating CorridorDesigner yet, since I have been knee-deep in programming for the past several months (code isn't very pretty, anyway!).
Technical communication & web design
The other half of my CorridorDesigner responsibilities is to communicate to a wide audience (researchers, planners, GIS staff, the public) the necessary steps for designing corridors. This requires explaining important conceptual decisions, as well as the nitty-gritty technical details for performing corridor analysis in ArcGIS.
I am creating nearly all content and graphic design/presentation for the project, including a 30-page website where users can download software and learn about designing corridors, a series of tutorials and software documentation, and presentation materials for workshops we will be presenting in fall 2007.
I developed the webpage using hand-coded XHTML and CSS. Additional PHP scripting was used to make maintenance easier, and several Javascript libraries progressively enhance behavior of website elements. Particular attention was given to creating a design that is easy to navigate and aesthetically pleasing, while maintaining a consistent feel across all pages.
Screenshot of corridordesign.org home page. Click for large version.
Screenshot of corridordesign.org website. Click for large version.