Mammoth Cave National Park NPScape

Abstract

NPScape is designed to address questions related to resource conservation Vulnerability and Opportunity. These dynamics are shaped at the landscape scale by three major factors: Natural Systems, Human Drivers, and Conservation Context. Consider by way of example a focal resource occurring inside a park. That resource is capable of persisting in part because of the ecological attributes of the larger natural system within which it exists. However, the value of the natural system with respect to the focal resource can be challenged by human-mediated drivers of landscape change. Precisely how these drivers interact with the natural system to impact the resource and, by extension, resource conservation vulnerability and opportunity, depends further on the stewardship of all management units within the natural system. NPScape quantifies these components and provides a suite of products to assist resource managers, planners, and interpreters. At its core, NPScape delivers a suite of metrics that are considered integral to understanding natural resource conservation in a landscape context. Current NPScape metrics fall into six major measure categories (population, housing, roads, land cover, pattern, and conservation status) that broadly address the human drivers, natural systems, and conservation context of national parks and other neighboring lands