EBM Tool Presentations and Demonstrations

Demonstration of Uncertainty Analysis using the Sea Level Affecting Marshes Model (SLAMM) by Marco Propato and Jonathan Clough of Warren Pinnacle Consulting (May 9, 2012).  Predictive models are always affected by uncertainties.  There is not one “right” prediction, rather there is a distribution of possible future results. The recent integration of a stochastic uncertainty analysis module to the Sea Level Affecting Marshes Model (SLAMM) allows users to examine wetland coverage results as distributions and can improve the decision making process. This addition to the SLAMM interface makes it possible to examine the effects of uncertainty and data errors in model parameters, including sea level rise, uplift/subsidence, tide ranges, and accretion and erosion rates, as well as feedbacks between sea level rise and accretion.  Uncertainty in the elevation data layer can be assessed while considering issues such as the spatial-autocorellation of measurement errors. Results account for uncertainties in input parameters and driving variables, provide a range of possible outcomes and their likelihood, and allow model users to evaluate the robustness of deterministic results. A stand-alone program, the SLAMM  Uncertainty Viewer, was developed with funding from Ducks Unlimited in order to simplify uncertainty output for end users, analysts, and decision makers. The SLAMM Uncertainty Viewer provides a map-based interface that analyzes future wetland-coverage probabilities for a user-defined region.  Graphical outputs from the viewer provide quantitative results that can assist in planning and decision-making. Learn more about SLAMM at http://warrenpinnacle.com/prof/SLAMM.

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Demonstration of NatureServe Vista® by Patrick Crist of NatureServe (September 30, 2008). This webinar provides an overview of NatureServe Vista, a decision support system for conservation planning that integrates conservation information with land/water use patterns and policies, providing planners, resource managers, and communities with tools to help manage their natural resources. This conservation planning software enables users to create, evaluate, implement, and monitor land use and resource management plans that operate within the existing economic, social, and political context to achieve conservation goals. This presentation also includes an overview of an integrated land-sea planning toolkit featuring Vista, CommunityViz, and N-SPECT software.  Learn more about NatureServe Vista at www.natureserve.org/prodServices/vista/overview.jsp.

Marine Geospatial Ecology Tools (MGET) Demonstration by Jason Roberts of Duke University (October 15, 2008, 2 pm EDT). MGET, also known as the GeoEco Python package, is an open source geoprocessing toolbox designed for coastal and marine researchers and GIS analysts who work with spatially-explicit ecological and oceanographic data in scientific or management workflows. MGET includes over 150 tools useful for a variety of tasks, such as converting oceanographic data to ArcGIS formats, identifying oceanographic features (e.g. SST fronts), fitting and evaluating statistical models such as GAMs and GLMs by automatically interfacing ArcGIS with the R statistics program, analyzing coral reef connectivity by simulating larval dispersal, and building grids that summarize fishing effort, CPUE and other statistics. MGET may be accessed from ArcGIS as a toolbox in the ArcToolbox window and from programming languages as a set of Python modules and COM Automation components. This demonstration will illustrate a few of the most popular tools in the MGET package by building and evaluating a presence/absence habitat model. Learn more about MGET.  For more information about the webinar, contact the EBM Tools Network Coordinator Sarah Carr at sarah_carr at natureserve.org.