Stage 2: Ideal Habitat Locations
Results
For this stage of the project I predicted that the best areas in Vancouver to sustain bird populations would centred around the local parks and that the Downtown Core would be largely omitted since there are so many high rises present.
Maps 2 & 3: These two maps show the resulting surface suitability maps for bird populations in Vancouver. Map 2 follows the results of the sensitivity analysis weighting scheme while map 3 utilizes the relative weighting scheme.
The initial results (both the relative weights and sensitivity analysis parameters) yielded findings that were the opposite of what was expected (Maps 2 & 3). After a little bit of tinkering I realized that in reclassifying the building heights, I had at first assigned cells that did not have any building on them as zero values. Later on I realized that these cells actually represented the most ideal class of buildings as they meant there would be no intrusion on the birds flight path and risk of building collisions.
Once I realized this error I redistributed the weights and ran the weighted sum analysis with the relative weighting scheme again. This time my results were more in line with what I had originally predicted. Areas like the Masqueum reserve and Queen Elizabeth park are clearly recognizable (Map 4), with a larger suitable area. This surface suitability suggests that city planners should focus their efforts on bolstering these parks as a natural haven for birds.
Map 4: A map showing the resulting surface suitability maps for bird populations in Vancouver following the correctly reclassified layer files.
When analyzing the Predator Bird habitat suitability map we can see that their suitable habitat range is far more limited than the overall bird population (Map 5). Although this could be an alarming sign, these findings are in line with population counts. These dominant predators are often at the top of their food chains and have historically existed in smaller populations. While there are concerns about having a large enough range with the necessary conditions to support these birds, the current area of the suitable regions should suffice.
Map 5: A map showing the surface suitability maps for the predator bird populations in Vancouver.
