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[NASA Introduction]
[Music Begins]
>>Caren Remillard: I spent four months living at the
University of Georgia's Costa Rica campus
and was inspired by their commitment to conservation.
I'm really excited to be working on a project that supports their initiatives.
>>Kirstin Valdes: My passion for international conservation led
me to pursue a study abroad in Costa Rica.
My time spent their introduced me
to the efforts put forth by both
the government and the local people
in conserving their environment.
>>Rebecca Lynn: I spent this past summer at
UGA Costa Rica and had the opportunity
first hand to see the conservation
efforts taking place within the region.
I am thrilled to be a part
of NASA DEVELOP to continue
improving the corridor connectivity.
>>Ning Chen: I am fascinated about bridging the
gap between ecological forecasting and geo-design.
The research outcome will become great
guidance for planners to make better
decisions in the future.
>>Team: We are the Costa Rica Eco Team!
>>Caren: Costa Rica has become the poster
country for reforestation efforts across the world.
It supports reforestation through the construction
of biological corridors which are
defined as linear landscapes that allow
for the transfer of individuals between
populations within fragmented habitats.
The Bellbird Biological Corridor spans
from the cloud forests of Monteverde
to the mangroves off the Gulf of Nicoya.
It provides habitat for 83 mammalian
species and nearly 500 bird species,
many of which are endemic or endangered.
Quint Newcomer, Director of UGA Costa Rica,
is an influential partner in our study.
He is familiar with the land,
interests of the people,
and the leaders of conservation in the region.
>>Quint Newcomer: So the UGA Costa Rica Campus
is located within the San Luis valley
within the Monteverde region of Costa Rica.
We run our own reforestation carbon
offset program.
The corridors span largely privately owned
country side and so the goal
is to work with landowners across
this privately owned countryside to
establish forest corridors that connect the parks.
Part of our goal is to carry out research
that can then be used by local organizations to
help engage and involve the communities to
make better decisions about how
they manage their land and their properties.
>>Rebecca Lynn: The University of Georgia Costa Rica
contributes to reforestation within the corridor
through growing and providing tree saplings to
local landowners that can plant
them on their property.
Our team analyzed the land cover
and forest connectivity within the
Bellbird Biological Corridor in order
to provide comprehensible graphs and maps
for both our study partner and the
local landowners to prioritize reforestation efforts.
Furthermore, we constructed two separate maps
based upon imagery from 30m resolution Landsat
and 5m resolution RapidEye.
These results were compared to explore
the advantages and disadvantages of using
each data source for monitoring connectivity.
>>Kirstin Valdes: The imagery underwent a supervised classification
in ArcGIS using the Maximum Likelihood Classification
tool from the ArcToolBox to create
the land cover maps.
The results were then re-classified
into two groups: forest and non-forest.
Subsequently, the landscape metrics were
computed in FRAGSTATS to determine areas
of low connectivity and high edge density.
These results identified areas in which
reforestation efforts should be focused.
>>Ning Chen: UGA Costa Rica's established relationship
with local landowners will allow our
results to be publicized
and promote reforestation efforts.
We are committed to providing our partners
and the local community with influential end-products
to support habitat connectivity in the region.