Corridor Analysis

I really enjoyed working on the corridor analysis.  In contrast to the least cost analysis, having multiple routes is extremely beneficial when dealing with something as inconsistent as wildlife trails.  A corridor analysis gives decision-makers plenty of wiggle-room in the details to still provide a feasible solution in an area. 

First, I had to reclassify the raster files to the preferred value ranges of the criteria.  Next, I merged these reclassified rasters using the Weighted Overlay tool.  I ran the Cost Distance tool for each polygon provided to represent the two protected areas and then ran the Corridor tool using each of the Cost Distance rasters as inputs.  The symbology of the corridor was then altered.  The minimum value of the cost surface was 42,750, so I incrementally increased this across three values to represent one narrow corridor with two larger “buffers” around it.  After that, I adjusted transparency and ordered it on top of the cost surface.

Public areas outside of urban areas would be beneficial to take into consideration.  Though this corridor is away from a densely populated area, there is no way of telling if it is near a popular recreation area.  Potential food sources for the bears would also be useful in trying to develop a corridor.  If trying to encourage a bear to utilize a corridor, ensuring the corridor has plenty of water and food sources would be preferred.