%0 Journal Article %J Landscape and Urban Planning %D 2004 %T TAMARIN: A landscape framework for evaluating economic incentives for rainforest restoration %A Stoms, David M. %A Chomitz, Kenneth M. %A Davis, Frank W. %K Biodiversity conservation planning %K Brazil %K GIS %K Mata Atlântica %K Opportunity costs %K Spatial decision support system %X The rapid disappearance of the remaining Atlantic rainforest in Brazil exemplifies the need for efficient conservation planning in fragmented habitats under intense human pressure. Such planning needs to address key conservation criteria: representation, redundancy, and resilience. It also needs to recognize the opportunity cost of devoting land to conservation. Yet most existing planning frameworks fail to incorporate all three conservation criteria, and few allow for spatially variable opportunity costs of land. This paper presents a GIS-based spatial decision support system––TAMARIN––that incorporates all these features. TAMARIN can be used to evaluate particular landscape configurations, such as proposed enhancements to a conservation reserve network. It also allows simulation and assessment of market-based economic policies to promote conservation, such as rental or purchase of conservation easements. These may be particularly important in minimizing costs and securing landholder compliance in populous areas with highly fragmented natural habitats. Although TAMARIN was tailored to the planning issues and data sources of the south Bahia portion of the Atlantic rainforest, the ecological and economic underpinnings make it adaptable to many other locations. %B Landscape and Urban Planning %V 68 %P 95-108 %8 2004 %G eng %U ://000220414700006 %0 Journal Article %J Environmental Management %D 2002 %T Fuzzy assessment of land suitability for scientific research reserves %A Stoms, David M. %A McDonald, Jennifer M. %A Davis, Frank W. %K Ecosystem Management Decision Support software %K EMDS %K fuzzy logic %K GIS %K knowledge base %K knowledge-base %K land suitability %K Merced %K Netweaver %K NRS %K research reserves %K University of California Natural Reserve System %K vernal pools %X Evaluating the characteristics of a set of sites as potential scientific research reserves is an example of land suitability assessment. Suitability in this case is based upon multiple criteria, many of which can be linguistically imprecise and often incompatible. Fuzzy logic is a useful method for characterizing imprecise suitability criteria and for combining criteria into an overall suitability rating. The Ecosystem Management Decision Support software combined a fuzzy logic knowledge base we developed to represent the assessment problem with a GIS database providing site-specific data for the assessment. Assessment of sites as a potential natural reserve for the new University of California campus at Merced demonstrates the benefits of fuzzy suitability assessment. The study was conducted in three stages of successively smaller assessment regions with increasingly fine spatial resolution and specificity of criteria. Several sites were identified that best satisfy the suitability criteria for a reserve to represent vernal pool habitat. %B Environmental Management %V 29 %P 545-558 %8 2002 %G eng %U http://link.springer.de/link/service/journals/00267/bibs/2029004/20290545.html://000174557600008