Mod6: Suitability
This lab focused on suitability and least-cost analysis to identify the best potential corridors for connecting two protected areas. The workflow combined both vector- and raster-based approaches to evaluate multiple environmental and spatial criteria. The process began by creating individual layers that represented each condition, such as forest cover, slope suitability, proximity to streams, and distance from major highways. These were chosen to reflect ecological needs, like providing continuous natural habitat, and to avoid negative impacts such as fragmentation from roads. In the vector portion, each criterion was processed into a polygon dataset, and the Union tool was used to merge them into a single layer containing all attributes from the different analyses. A query was then run to select only those polygons that satisfied all criteria simultaneously, producing a refined dataset of suitable habitat corridors. This required careful examination of the attribute table to...