Research

Landscape Ecology Laboratory

Landscape Ecology Laboratory
Workflow for Conservation Planning
Landscape Change Analysis for Southeast Asia
Landscape Change Analysis for Southern Africa
Biodiversity Model and Guild Analysis in Southeast Asia
Bhutan
Thailand
Publications

WildCRU’s Landscape Ecology Laboratory addresses the conceptualisation of long-term biological processes over multiple spatial scales and over time, to understand the drivers of landscape change and evaluate alternative future land cover/use change scenarios to inform land use planning. Drawing on WildCRU’s extensive camera trap surveys across Africa and Asia, and, in the case of lions and clouded leopards, their movement data, our landscape connectivity and population dynamics analyses are rooted in empiricism and built with advanced spatial models.

Combined with land cover data from satellite imagery, we are developing multi-scale landscape models and scenario planning toolkits at regional, national, trans-boundary and range-wide scales for target species. We are engaging with regional and national government and non-government stakeholders, launching evidence from our research to plan policy.

The workflow for the WildCRU Landscape Ecology Laboratory analyses to support conservation planning at multiple scales consists of six main analytical steps conceived by Sam Cushman and Zaneta Kaszta.

We are currently developing and refining policy toolkits for the KAZA region of Southern Africa, Bhutan, Myanmar, Laos and Sabah, Borneo.

WildCRU’s landscape ecology DPhil students are working across different modelling scales. Eric Ash is focussing on tigers in Thailand, and, at a multi-species level we are developing landscape change models for Bhutan with Ugyen Penjor and Southeast Asia with Luca Chiaverini.