Connecting Landscapes: A decision support system to facilitate conservation led development

Unsustainable development continues to fragment natural landscapes and wildlife populations, contributing to declining global biodiversity. Advances in computation have enabled ever more sophisticated assessment of development and conservation impacts on functional landscape connectivity. However, accessibility of these advances to non-expert users has lagged. Here we present Connecting Landscapes (CoLa), an integration and expansion of existing software applications that model functional connectivity, population dynamics, and genetic exchange across landscapes. CoLa is a cloud-based or locally installable conservation decision-support system (DSS) that enables user-friendly assessment of the trade-offs between development and conservation in a data-driven framework. We describe the origins of the CoLa DSS, its functionality, and present two case studies at different spatial scales illustrating its use. We expect the CoLa DSS will be particularly useful to decision makers attempting to reconcile economic growth and biodiversity conservation, supporting the transition to conservation-led development needed to stem the ongoing loss of biodiversity.