Integrated Remote Sensing and GIS Techniques for Elk Habitat Management
Thomas P. Huber
DOI: 10.2190/AYQN-F963-LJNK-9GRJ
Abstract
This inter-disciplinary study of habitat use by Rocky Mountain elk (Cervus elaphus nelsoni Bailey 1935), and of conflicts with human land use and development zoning, uses remote sensing, image processing, and geographic information systems for data manipulation and analysis. The project included the application of home range algorithms, satellite image classification, and geographic information systems (GIS) to identify and map critical habitat zones where elk and humans interact and compete for limited space and other resources in an area of the southern Rocky Mountains of central Colorado. Results reveal an ever increasing invasion by humans into prime elk habitat areas and the need for better control of human development in the mountain environments of the American West. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.