Habitat

Spatial analysis tool for ecological assessment

HABITAT is a spatial analysis tool with a GIS calculation core that can be used to analyze the availability and quality of habitats for individuals or groups of species and to map spatial units (e.g. ecotopes). It can be used, for example, to analyze the effects of climate change on nature to support the development of adaptation strategies. It is also useful for other spatial analyses where grid operations are needed (e.g flood risk maps or damages to agriculture or urban areas in case of floods and droughts). HABITAT is built around PCRaster[Link : http://www.pcraster.nl/], a software package responsible for making the map-calculations and incorporated in the user interface of DelftShell. HABITAT consists of a software tool and an ecological knowledge base with dose- effect relations for species, species groups or vegetation types based on environmental conditions. We follow the ‘Dare to Share’ principle which means that the software tool is free of use and we encourage HABITAT users to share their knowledge through the HABITAT-wiki.