Editor's note: The goal of The EBM Toolbox is to promote awareness of tools for facilitating EBM and MSP processes. It is brought to you by the EBM Tools Network, a voluntary alliance of tool users, developers, and training providers.
The EBM Tools Network recently responded to a question about tools people have used to evaluate cumulative impacts from multiple human activities qualitatively, quantitatively, and/or spatially. Network members provided a number of great resources. Some of the more broadly applicable tools and resources Network members have used include:
- Comprehensive Assessment of Risks to Ecosystems (CARE) is a new free tool that guides users through a step-by-step process to evaluate the potential impact of all natural and human threats to a given set of marine ecosystems and species.
- Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE) including the Ecospace spatial and temporal dynamic module is a free ecological/ecosystem modeling software suite that can be used to explore management policy options, address ecological questions, and evaluate fishing and environmental changes on marine ecosystems.
- InVEST (Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services Tradeoffs) is a suite of free, open-source software models that can be used to map and valuate ecosystem goods and services and how changes in an ecosystem’s structure and function are likely to affect the flows and values of ecosystem services across a landscape or seascape.
- NatureServe Vista is a free ArcGIS extension that automates advanced spatial analyses and supports multiple-use, multi-objective planning for a wide range of features of interest.
- NetMap, available by license or as a service for a fee from TerrainWorks, provides virtual watershed and analysis tools for decision support in forestry, fisheries, restoration, riparian management, conservation, and climate change for landscapes, watersheds, and smaller areas.
- The Nature Conservancy’s ecoregional assessments are analyses of the distribution and status of biodiversity, habitat condition, current and future threats, and the socio-political conditions that influence conservation success within an ecoregion. The assessments often include geographic indices of cumulative impacts.
If you have a question about tools and resources for coastal and marine conservation and management that you would like to ask the EBM Tools Network, join their free discussion list at https://list.openchannels.org/mailman/listinfo/ebmtools_discuss and post your question to ebmtools_discuss@list.openchannels.org.