Overview of the Wildlife Management Decision Support Tool
The Wildlife Management Decision Support Tool is an internet based decision support tool that can be used to predict the abundance of groups of species across the landscape. These models predict species abundance using attributes of the landscape and vegetation. These attributes include the percentage of remnant vegetation surrounding vegetation patches, the size and age of vegetation patches and the composition of vegetation patches. The predictions made by the tool are based on probabilities that have been determined from fauna surveys.
The tool has two main components:
1. A model or network viewer – the network viewer allows you to view wildlife models for different groups of species, such as birds and reptiles. These models are diagrams showing the relationships between landscape and vegetation attributes, and the abundance of wildlife groups. The models allow you to conduct scenario analysis by selecting states of the landscape and vegetation and seeing how this affects the probability of wildlife abundance.
2. A map viewer – the map viewer allows you to view maps that show the predicted abundance of wildlife. These maps are produced by linking the wildlife models to maps of landscape and vegetation attributes. The map viewer also allows you to conduct scenario analysis and produce maps for different scenarios.
Following are four simple tutorials that show you how to open and use the wildlife models and the map viewer:
1. Viewing Wildlife Models
2. Using Wildlife Models for Scenario Analysis
3. Viewing Wildlife Maps
4. Using Wildlife Maps for Scenario Analysis
It is recommended that you do these tutorials in sequence.