SOFIA - Metadata - Development of an Internet-Based GIS to Visualize ATLSS Datasets for Resource Managers

The ATLSS Data Visualization System was designed to make it simple to view and analyze Spatially-Explicit Species Index (SESI) models. An essential aspect of the ATLSS Program is making model output easily accessed and used by client agencies. For this purpose an ATLSS Data Viewer (ADV) has been developed. Based in part around the ADV, background work for a spatial decision support system (SDSS) is proposed in which the decision models are tightly integrated with, or directly generated from, geographic information systems (GIS) analyses and display. Spatially-explicit knowledge from which decisions made at specific sites are within the context of conditions proximate and regional to those sites are essential for intelligent ecological restoration and permitting. Examples include determination of areas suitable for viable and sustainable populations (habitat and risk assessment), areas of socioeconomic and environmental conflict, optimization of development footprints to protect natural systems, and hydrological and successional feedback dynamics that influence the landscape.