Least-cost Path and Corridor Analysis
For the final assignment in GIS 5100, I learned about least-cost path and corridor analysis. Least-cost path analysis determines the single best path that has the lowest cost for a given source and destination. Corridor analysis provides multiple solutions, representing a zone where the cost is close to the least-cost. The analysis I undertook involved modeling a corridor for black bear movement between two protected areas of Coronado National Forest. The factors in model development were related to the habitual preferences of black bears and included placing the corridor in an area away from roads, that are mid-elevation, and have specific types of forest and vegetation (land cover). After reclassifying values with suitability scores in three different rasters (roads buffers, elevation, and land cover), the Weighted Overlay tool was used that assigned land cover the highest weighting (60%) with elevation and distance to roads each receiving 20%. Cost surface rasters were then cr...