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Conservation Science

Conservation Strategy - Conservation by Design

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Documents and Tools for Focusing Freshwater Efforts Across Large Geographic Areas

Documents and Papers on The Nature Conservancy’s Approach

  • Conservation Priorities for the Freshwater Biodiversity in the Upper Mississippi River Basin
    This report details the assessment conducted by NatureServe and The Nature Conservancy of freshwater biological diversity in the Upper Mississippi River Basin. This information was synthesized to create a network of areas that together represent the full diversity of target species and aquatic ecological systems, as well as the top forty-seven areas for both terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity. This information can be used by conservation practioners and natural resource managers throughout the basin to guide the focused and comprehensive conservation action needed to sustain freshwater biodiversity in this national treasure. Additional data (spatial data, species and project databases) are available upon individual request to Mary Khoury at mkhoury@tnc.org.
     
  • Priority Areas for Freshwater Conservation Action: A Biodiversity Assessment of the Southeastern United States (.pdf, 6.8 MB) ConserveOnline? 
    This report summarizes The Nature Conservancy's efforts to identify the most important areas for freshwater biodiversity conservation in the southeastern United States. The methods and conservation targets used to identify the freshwater conservation areas include identifying and mapping all of the distinct aquatic ecological systems within regions and compiling and analyzing the most up-to-date species data.
     
  • Aquatics and Ecoregional Planning (.pdf, 553 kb)
    This document provides guidance for individuals and teams engaged in large-scale conservation planning. The primary focus of this document is assisting ecoregional planning teams to adequately consider aquatic biodiversity in the selection of priority sites for future conservation focus.
     
  • Aquatic Ecoregional Planning (50kb pdf file, updated 5-28-01)
    Aquatic Ecoregional Planning—Spanish Version (50kb pdf file)
    The purpose of this document is to provide an overview of The Nature Conservancy's approach to aquatic ecoregional planning and an initial analysis of regional patterns of aquatic diversity.
     
  • Threats Guide (.pdf, 134 kb)
    This guide identifies data sources helpful when evaluating the quality of and threats to natural biodiversity of freshwater systems. Most of these sources are national or regional data sources, available through internet web sites. (Where possible, links to these data sources are incorporated). The guide was developed primarily to assess streams and lakes, although much of the information could be applied to wetland and riparian areas.
     
  • Aquatic Community Classification Framework (.zip, 2.3 MB) ConserveOnline?
    *Note: this is a large document
    This document describes the development and application of an aquatic community classification framework for the Great Lakes Basin.
     
  • Watershed Characteristics and Aquatic Ecological Integrity: A Literature Review (.pdf, 53 kb)
    This document is a review of empirical research on the relationship between watershed characteristics and indexes of biotic integrity for aquatic species.


Mapped Examples of the Conservancy’s Freshwater Ecosystem Classification Work

  • Status of freshwater planning in conservancy ecoregions
    Click here for a larger version of this map.
    GIS data are now available for some completed ecoregional planning projects     (Southeastern United States, Alaska Peninsula and Bristol Bay Basin, Cook Inlet Basin, Central Mixed-Grass Prairie, Colorado Plateau, and Southern Rocky Mountains.)

    Additional data will be made available in the future.

    The GIS datasets, available above, were used to address aquatic biodiversity in The Nature Conservancy's ecoregional planning process. These GIS data were primarily used in to map aquatic ecological systems and to identity system targets with high potential quality. For more information about the Conservancy’s approach to establishing freshwater priorities across large geographic areas, please visit The Nature Conservancy’s Aquatic Ecosystem Classification Framework.

    These data should be useful for conservation planners, watershed managers, and researchers who require mapped data on freshwater ecosystem types and threats to those systems, at both regional and local scales. Available data differ by ecoregion, but generally consist of a river and stream ecosystem classifications, EDUs, boundaries of the ecoregions or basins classified for the project, and documentation on classification and GIS methods. Some projects also include lake classification data and river and stream quality indicators, such as upstream land-cover distribution, road density, dam density, and point source density. See the project description for a more detailed list of available data.

GIS Tools and Data Developed by The Nature Conservancy

  • GIS Tools for Stream and Lake Classification and Watershed Analysis  ConserveOnline?
    (2.4 Mb.zip file, contains Arcview 3.2 project, Microsoft Access database, Acrobat format .pdf files, text files)

    This zip file contains a set of GIS tools used by TNC for regional-scale ecological classification of streams and lakes. The tools can also be used to generate quality indicators (based on watershed characteristics) for those same streams and lakes. Detailed documentation is also included in the zip file. The tools will work with the National Hydrography Dataset and also with other datasets that satisfy certain requirements (see tool documentation for details). The tools are intended for experienced GIS users, and function in ARC/INFO (using Arc Macro Language), Arcview (using Avenue), and MS Access (using Visual Basic). This version of the tools supersedes the previous version of the tools, which worked with the EPA's RF3 hydrography. For information on how to migrate attributes from RF3 to the National Hydrography Dataset, contact Tom FitzHugh, GIS Specialist, TNC Sustainable Waters Program (tfitzhugh@tnc.org).

    Software requirements: Arcview 3.2 or 3.3, ARC/INFO 7.2 or later, and Microsoft Access 97 or 2000.
     
  • GIS Tool Tutorial Dataset ConserveOnline?
    (8.1 Mb zip file, contains ARC/INFO coverages, grids, and shapefiles)

    This zip file contains GIS data for a GIS tool tutorial. The tutorial is contained in the document Tool_Primer.pdf, in the GIS tool zip file above.

    Software requirements: Arcview 3.2 or 3.3, ARC/INFO 7.2 or later, and Microsoft Access 97 or 2000