University of Massachusetts Amherst

Conservation Assessment and Prioritization System

Conservation Assessment and Prioritization System

CAPS GIS Data

CAPS 2011 data for Massachusetts

Data organization. All CAPS results and many intermediate results are available for download. This section provides links to the various versions of IEI, the CAPS landcover, results of individual metrics, and settings variables. Data are available in grouped .zip files, listed below. In addition, individual metrics and settings variables are available in separate .zip files.

Data formats. With this release, we're supplying all grids as geoTIFFs as well as ESRI Arc grids. GeoTIFFs have several advantages over Arc grids: they are typically more space-efficient, they can be viewed in most image viewers and browsers as well as with GIS software, they can contain display formats intrinsically rather than requiring a separate application-specific legend, and most importantly, geoTIFF is a public domain format, as opposed to ESRI's proprietary format. As open-source GIS software (such as QGIS) becomes more sophisticated and stable, we anticipate many users will migrate to open source GIS. To support this migration, we plan to make our data available in public domain formats such as geoTIFF.

Scaling. Scaled metrics and IEI are scaled from 0-1; in geoTIFFs, these grids are expressed in terms of percent (scaled 0-100). Raw metrics and settings grids are scaled in original units, unique to each grid; in geoTIFFs, these grids are scaled from 0-255. The CAPS final landcover, capsland, represents landcover classes using integer classes (see Appendix H). GeoTIFF versions are already colored appropriately; legends files for QGIS, ArcView 3.3, and ArcMap are supplied for the Arc grid.

The coordinate reference system for all data is Massachusetts mainland State Plane, NAD83.

Basic results

These are the most basic results, for those who want immediate gratification. This .zip file consists of two files in geoTIFF format:

iei_i – CAPS Integrated IEI (scaled 1-100)

capsland – CAPS landcover grid

GeoTIFFs: http://jamba.provost.ads.umass.edu/web/caps2011/tiffzips/basic.zip (17 MB)

Standard results

These results contain all four versions of the IEI, as well as landcover. In Arc grids, IEIs are scaled 0-1; In geoTIFFs, they are scaled 0-100.

iei – CAPS statewide IEI

iei_e – CAPS ecoregion IEI

iei_w – CAPS watershed IEI

iei_i – CAPS Integrated IEI

capsland – CAPS landcover grid

legend files for capsland (QGIS, ArcView 3.3, and ArcGIS)

GeoTIFFs: http://jamba.provost.ads.umass.edu/web/caps2011/tiffzips/results.zip (66 MB)

Arc grids: http://jamba.provost.ads.umass.edu/web/caps2011/arczips/results.zip (104 MB)

Five color integrated IEI

The grid used to produce the IEI town maps ("areas of potential high ecological integrity") are available in a geoTIFF. This grid is the top 50% integrated IEI, displayed in five color gradients (green for forests, orange for shrublands, yellow-brown for coastal uplands, blue for freshwater wetland & aquatic, and cyan for coastal wetland aquatic). The values in this grid encode the color; they are not meaningful otherwise.

GeoTIFF: http://jamba.provost.ads.umass.edu/web/caps2011/tiffzips/iei5color.zip (5 MB)

DEP important habitat

The DEP Massachusetts Habitat of Potential Regional and Statewide Importance data are available in a geoTIFF. This grid is simply the top 40% of integrated IEI (iei_i > 0.6); cells with a value of 1 are within DEP important habitat.

GeoTIFF: http://jamba.provost.ads.umass.edu/web/caps2011/tiffzips/ieitop40.zip (8 MB)

Raw metrics

These .zip files contain all raw metrics results. See Appendix C for a list of metrics, grid names, and brief descriptions, and Appendix F for the contribution of each metric to each community's IEI. Raw metrics are scaled in original units, unique to each metric; geoTIFF versions are rescaled from 0-255. Integrity increases with decreasing values of stressor metrics, and increasing values of resiliency metrics.

GeoTIFFs: http://jamba.provost.ads.umass.edu/web/caps2011/tiffzips/metricsraw.zip (157 MB)

Arc grids: http://jamba.provost.ads.umass.edu/web/caps2011/arczips/metricsraw.zip (760 MB)

Scaled metrics

These .zip files contain all scaled metrics results—these are the raw metrics rescaled by percentiles within each community. See Appendix C for a list of metrics, grid names, and brief descriptions, and Appendix F for the contribution of each metric to each community's IEI. Scaled metrics range from 0 to 1 (higher values correspond to higher integrity for all metrics); geoTIFF versions are scaled by percent (0-100).

GeoTIFFs: http://jamba.provost.ads.umass.edu/web/caps2011/tiffzips/metricsscaled.zip (106 MB)

Arc grids: http://jamba.provost.ads.umass.edu/web/caps2011/arczips/metricsscaled.zip (169 MB)

Settings variables

These .zip files contain mixed (unscaled) settings variables. See Appendix D for a list and brief description of settings variables, and Appendix G for grid names and weights. Settings variables are scaled in original units, unique to each variable; geoTIFF versions are rescaled from 0-255.

GeoTIFFs: http://jamba.provost.ads.umass.edu/web/caps2011/tiffzips/settings.zip (85 MB)

Arc grids: http://jamba.provost.ads.umass.edu/web/caps2011/arczips/settings.zip (477 MB)

Individual grids

Metrics (both raw and scaled) and settings variables are also supplied as individual GeoTIFFs. These data are the same as those listed above; we're supplying grids individually for the convenience of those who just want results for a metric or two. Individual grids range in size from <1 to 18 MB.

Metrics

Development & roads

Habitat loss

Watershed habitat loss

Wetland buffer insults

Road traffic

Mowing & plowing

Microclimate alterations

Pollution

Road salt

Road sediment

Biotic alterations

Domestic predators

Edge predators

Invasive plants

Invasive earthworms

Hydrological alterations

Imperviousness

Dams

Coastal metrics

Salt marsh ditching

Coastal structures

Beach pedestrians

Beach ORVs

Tidal restrictions

Resiliency Metrics

Connectedness

Aquatic connectedness

Similarity

Settings variables

Temperature

Growing season degree-days

http://jamba.provost.ads.umass.edu/web/caps2011/tiffzips/settings/degdays.zip

Minimum winter temperature

http://jamba.provost.ads.umass.edu/web/caps2011/tiffzips/settings/mintemp.zip

Solar energy

Incident solar radiation

http://jamba.provost.ads.umass.edu/web/caps2011/tiffzips/settings/sun.zip

Chemical & physical substrate

Soil pH

http://jamba.provost.ads.umass.edu/web/caps2011/tiffzips/settings/soilph.zip

Soil depth

http://jamba.provost.ads.umass.edu/web/caps2011/tiffzips/settings/soildepth.zip

Soil texture

http://jamba.provost.ads.umass.edu/web/caps2011/tiffzips/settings/soiltex.zip

Water salinity

http://jamba.provost.ads.umass.edu/web/caps2011/tiffzips/settings/salinity.zip

Substrate mobility

http://jamba.provost.ads.umass.edu/web/caps2011/tiffzips/settings/substrate.zip

CaCO3 content

http://jamba.provost.ads.umass.edu/web/caps2011/tiffzips/settings/calcium.zip

Physical disturbance

Wind exposure

http://jamba.provost.ads.umass.edu/web/caps2011/tiffzips/settings/wind.zip

Wave exposure

http://jamba.provost.ads.umass.edu/web/caps2011/tiffzips/settings/waves.zip

Steep slopes

http://jamba.provost.ads.umass.edu/web/caps2011/tiffzips/settings/slope.zip

Moisture

Wetness

http://jamba.provost.ads.umass.edu/web/caps2011/tiffzips/settings/wetness.zip

Hydrology

Flow gradient

http://jamba.provost.ads.umass.edu/web/caps2011/tiffzips/settings/gradient.zip

Flow volume

http://jamba.provost.ads.umass.edu/web/caps2011/tiffzips/settings/volume.zip

Tidal regime

http://jamba.provost.ads.umass.edu/web/caps2011/tiffzips/settings/tides.zip

Vegetation

Vegetative structure

http://jamba.provost.ads.umass.edu/web/caps2011/tiffzips/settings/structure.zip

Development

Developed

http://jamba.provost.ads.umass.edu/web/caps2011/tiffzips/settings/developed.zip

Hard development

http://jamba.provost.ads.umass.edu/web/caps2011/tiffzips/settings/hard.zip

Traffic rate

http://jamba.provost.ads.umass.edu/web/caps2011/tiffzips/settings/traffic.zip

Impervious

http://jamba.provost.ads.umass.edu/web/caps2011/tiffzips/settings/imperv.zip

Terrestrial barriers

http://jamba.provost.ads.umass.edu/web/caps2011/tiffzips/settings/tbarriers.zip

Aquatic barriers

http://jamba.provost.ads.umass.edu/web/caps2011/tiffzips/settings/abarriers.zip

Additional data

A large collection of additional GIS data for Massachusetts are available from MassGIS (http://www.mass.gov/mgis/massgis.htm). Many of these data layers, such as town boundaries, ecoregions, watersheds, aerial photos, and USGS topographic maps are extremely helpful for viewing and interpreting CAPS results.

Running CAPS for Massachusetts requires a large number of additional intermediate data sources not linked above. These data are available on request.