Planning for Land Use and Conservation: Assessing GIS-Based Conservation Software for Land Use Planning

Recent advances in planning and ecological software make it possible to conduct highly technical analyses to prioritize conservation investments and inform local land use planning. We review these tools, termed conservation planning tools, and assess the knowledge of a key set of potential users: the land use planning community. We grouped several conservation software tools into five themes: reserve selection, habitat connectivity, species distribution and viability modeling, threats, and cli-mate forecasting. We found that professional planners frequently use GIS tools and are generally aware of conservation planning tools, but few planners are proficient in the use of such tools owing to lack of financial support and time for training. We propose that conservation planners and land use planners work together to strategically invest resources and maximize the conservation impact of land use planning