Introduction
According to an renowned biologist the biodiversity on Earth is going through a “immense and hidden” tragedy that requires the scale of response that is now involved with climate change(Guardian UK).Since the last century 183 known species have become extinct. Including the focal species of the Tasmanian Tiger, the Caribbean Monk Seal, and the Toolache Wallaby. However, these are only the known species and this number seems to be , according to The International Union for Conservation, considerably less then what is actually occurring. The problem is that these species are disappearing
faster then we can study, understand, or even find them. A large portion of protecting these species and a lot of unknown species is protecting the habitat they frequent. One of the most important and diverse biological communities is a forest. These habitats shelter thousands of known species and thousand of unknown species, species that as the saying goes... “could be the next cure to cancer”. Yet the only way to find this potential species is to consider the consequences of our actions as humans on this planet and find ways to decrease our footprint.
Habitat destruction, fragmentation, and introduction of native species are Hawaii's principle threats to biodiversity. Development and expansion of human populations fragments and deteriorates important habitats. Most of this however, is happening outside the park boundaries. If we can analyze the current surroundings and decide what habitat poses the most need, we can look to protect these lands from further degradation. With Just .2% of the U.S land area, Hawaii has about 25% of the U.S endangered species. Habitat destruction along with the spread of invasive species have been heavy contributors to biodiversity loss.(OTA 1993)
The purpose of this project is to examine the Hawaiian islands and do a suitability analysis to try and determine potential areas for conservation. One of the factors for this analysis is distance away from roads. This factors also helps in determining a distance away from populated areas as they have more roads then rural areas. In this analysis we want the potential reserve to be at least ½ mile away from the nearest major road. Another factor I am looking at is the location of dump sites within the islands, however most of these site are ocean related factors I am still creating a buffer of 2 miles from the nearest dump site. The next factor is land cover, I reclassified land cover as will be talked about more in the Methods section, on a scale from 1-5. 5 being primarily forest land and the most suitable area to place a potential reserve. Another factor that I took into consideration was the density of threatened and endangered plants. On the same classification scale as the land cover the area with the highest density of threatened and endangered was deemed a 5 or most suitable to be protect by a potential reserve. Finally, I created a map for each island that shows the most suitable places for a potential reserve after each of the above factors have been weighed and added together through the raster calculator.
Methods
After finalizing my idea of running a suitability analysis potential conservation areas in Hawaii, most of the the data came from Hawaii's GIS site. This site is one of the most comprehensive GIS data site I have come across, all the data is organized in categories of physical features/ base maps, political boundaries, natural resource and environmental layers, hazard layers, and finally coastal layers.
The factors I took into account where hill shades, roads,dump sites, land cover,proximity to other reserves, and density of threatened and endangered species. The first step in creating a suitability analysis for potential reserves in the Hawaiian islands was to create buffers. I initially made a multiple ring buffer for the roads of ½ mile and 1 mile. I also created a buffer from dump sites of 2 miles
After creating the buffers I converted all my shape file in raster data through the spatial analyst toolbar, convert feature to raster. This process was a slow one because every conversion took at least 5 min for the computer to process, it was a lot of hurry up an wait for these action to happen.
I used the raster calculator then to infer values for the roads buffer and dump buffer, then I reclassified Land Cover 1.Urban and Built up land was considered 0 suitability.2. Barren Land was considered 1 in suitability 2. Water and Wetlands were considered 2 in suitability 3. Agricultural Land was considered a 3 in suitability 4. Range land was considered a 4 in suitability 5. Forest Land was considered a 5 in suitability . On a scale from 1-5, 5 is considered the most suitable land cover to potentially put a new reserve.
I also reclassified Density of Threatened and Endangered Species. Where the values of Very High , High , Medium, Low, and Non or Little species corresponds with the suitability number of 1-5. Again, 5 is the most suitable location.
Finally I reclassified, the distances of the road buffers and the dump site buffers into values of 1-5 again. 5 being the farthest site from roads or dump sites and slowly getting closer to these points as the values go down and the site becomes less suitable.
Results
Hawaii: "The Big Island"
The map of the Big Island shows the suitability analysis for the whole island in the main frame. The suitability of the locations on the island are classified from 1-10. 1 being the least suitable site for a potential reserve that most likely corresponds to areas of high population density and therefore urban or built-up areas. The score of 10 is the most suitable and is designated by the areas in red. These areas most likely correspond to areas with low population density, low road density, and areas of Forest land. In the inset map of the class 10 or Red areas in Hawaii shows a small area outside of already reserved land. It seems then that it might be possible to create another reserve in the red area, because it is close to other reserves to help circumvent fragmentation as well as being the most suitable area after accounting for all the factors.
Oahu: "The Gathering Place"
The maps of Oahu is the same concepts as said above. To expand, the legend's color classification scheme is purposefully accentuating the areas that score 7 or higher on the suitability analysis. This is because I wanted to target the best possible site for potential reserves, and the sites that need the most attention first. These are areas that have a high density of threatened and endangered fauna species and are in one of the most important biomes: Forest. All of these factors hopefully state that the areas in Red, Purple, Green, and Blue are the ones that need immediate attention and would be the first sites to designate as reserves or parks. In the inset map of Oahu's potential sites, the red area below Kaala Natural Reserve and above Waianae Kai Forest Reserve is the potential site for the reserve. If both the two said reserves would expand their boundaries slightly this area would be captured.
Molokai:" The Friendly Isle"
Molokai is split into two main geographical areas.The western half is very dry due to sheep grazing a poor management practices. The eastern side is a rising plateau that is covered mostly with lush forest. This split is well defined in the map. The Eastern plateau is well covered in reds, purples, greens, and blues. Most of the current reserves encapsulate the areas in purple, however as shown in the inset map there are two area of "most suitable" land that is not currently designated as a reserve. These two red area would be good candidates for a potential reserve
Maui: " The Valley Isle"
Maui experienced rapid population growth in 2007 when the town of Kihei was one of the most rapidly growing town in the U.S because of this there were controversies of whether to continue the rapid real estate development of the island. In 2009 however, the county approved a 1,000 unit development in South Maui (medb.org). This is just one example how a sizable area can be converted from potential reserve sites to a housing development. There is a lot of suitability class 8 that would be good candidates for potential reserves in South Maui. In the inset map there is a lot of purple class 9 suitability and a few dot of class 10 suitability that would benefit from the West Maui Forest Reserve expanding its boundaries North.
Kauai:"The Garden Isle"
Kauai's is a very mountainous island. the highest peak is Kawaikini at 5,243ft. The second is Mount Waialeale near the center of the island. On the East side of Mount Waialeale is considered one of the wettest areas on Earth. This fact is shown well in the map. The East side of Kauai has a ton of Red, Purple, Green, and Blue areas. However, most of the current reserves are also situated on the East side. As shown in the inset map the Southern Central area is relatively neglected when it come to reserves. it would be beneficial to capture some of those areas in reserves
Conclusion
All in all, there are many potential reserve sites on all of the Hawaiian Islands. However, some of the shortcomings of this project was that I did not look at planned developments. And, even though I looked at proximity of roads as an indication of population density in further research I would have plotted heavily populated areas. Without the constraint of time, I would have also gone on to look at what exactly is within the potential areas I mapped and see if it is really possible to create a reserve there, and what the factors would be in creating it.
