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  Designing Sustainable Landscapes: Geophysical settings associated with the LANDSCAPE DESIGN paper

  Kevin McGarigal, Brad Compton, Ethan B. Plunkett, Bill DeLuca, and Joanna Grand

  Geophysical settings created by The Nature Conservancy used for our geophysical cores. See Anderson MG, Barnett A, Clark M, Ferree C, Sheldon AO, Prince J (2016) Resilient sites for terrestrial conservation in eastern North America 2016 edition. The Nature Conservancy, Eastern Conservation Science. https://easterndivision.s3.amazonaws.com/Resilient_Sites_for_Terrestrial_Conservation.pdf for details. [updated 9/10/18]

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  Designing Sustainable Landscapes: Alternative landscape designs associated with the LANDSCAPE DESIGN paper

  Kevin McGarigal, Brad Compton, Ethan B. Plunkett, Bill DeLuca, and Joanna Grand

  In this study, we developed 9 alternative sets of terrestrial cores based on various combinations of different biodiversity surrogates (species, ecosystems, and geophysical settings). We evaluated the compositional and spatial overlap among cores, and modeled the impact of 70 years of urban growth and climate change on future landscapes assuming each set of cores was protected. Each of the sets of cores (including the HUC6 Nature’s Network cores) are included in the data. [updated 9/10/18]

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  Data sheets for assessment of invasive species impacts

  Bethany A. Bradley

  These data sheets are an adaptation of the IUCN supported Environmental Impacts Classification of Alien Taxa (EICAT) protocol for assessment of impacts of invasive species. A text version of the protocol is available in Hawkins et al. 2015 (see readme file). The data sheets provide a standard format for reporting and summarizing invasive species impacts.

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  Designing Sustainable Landscapes: Total annual precipitation and growing season precipitation settings variables

  Kevin McGarigal, Brad Compton, Ethan Plunkett, Bill DeLuca, and Joanna Grand

  These two precipitation variables are among several ecological settings variables that collectively characterize the biophysical setting of each 30 m cell at a given point in time (McGarigal et al 2017). The amount of rainfall and depth of snowpack affects species composition, as well as ecological processes such as nutrient cycling. We’ve chosen two variables to represent precipitation. Both variables have future versions that incorporate climate change via General Circulation Models (GCMs) (as described in the technical document on climate, McGarigal et al 2017).

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  UNDP and World Bank development phrases

  M.J. Peterson

  Coding of the policy-related words or phrases used in the general policy section of each year's Annual Report of the Administrator for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Bank.

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  Designing Sustainable Landscapes: Critical Local Linkages

  Kevin McGarigal, Brad Compton, Ethan Plunkett, Bill DeLuca, and Joanna Grand

  Critical local linkages includes two Designing Sustainable Landscapes (DSL) products that measure the relative potential to improve local aquatic connectivity through restoration, including dam removals and culvert upgrades. A complete description of the critical local linkage assessment is provided in the technical document on connectivity (McGarigal et al 2017. Here, we briefly describe the dam removal and culvert upgrade layers. These particular products were initially developed for the Connecticut River watershed as part of the Connect the Connecticut project (www.connecttheconnecticut.org) — a collaborative partnership under the auspices of the North Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative (NALCC), and subsequently developed for the entire Northeast region as part of the Nature's Network project (www.naturesnetwork.org). Briefly, each dam or road-stream crossing is scored based on its potential to improve local connectivity through the corresponding restoration action, but only where it matters — in places where the current ecological integrity is not already seriously degraded too much.

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  Designing Sustainable Landscapes: Northeast Aquatic Core Areas

  Kevin McGarigal, Brad Compton, Ethan Plunkett, Bill DeLuca, and Joanna Grand

  Northeast aquatic cores is one of the principal Designing Sustainable Landscapes (DSL) landscape conservation design (LCD) products for aquatic ecosystems and species, and it is best understood in the context of the full LCD process described in detail in the technical document on landscape design (McGarigal et al 2017). This particular set of products was developed for the entire Northeast region as part of the Nature's Network project (www.naturesnetwork.org) — a collaborative partnership under the auspices of the North Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative (NALCC). Northeast aquatic cores represent a combination of lotic core areas (rivers and streams) and lentic core areas (lakes and ponds) selected at the Northeast regional scale to complement the lotic and lentic cores selected at the HUC6 scale (see aquatic cores document, McGarigal et al 2017) (Fig. 1).The HUC6 aquatic cores represent the primary LCD product for aquatic ecosystems; they were built to capture the best of each aquatic ecosystem in each HUC6 watershed in order to ensure a well-distributed network of aquatic cores across the region. However, the HUC6 scaling of the ecological integrity index (see IEI document, McGarigal et al 2017) from which the HUC6 cores were derived (see below) trades off some of the best areas of each aquatic ecosystem in the region for lower-valued areas in each HUC6 to achieve a more even distribution across the region for same total conserved area. The Northeast scaling of IEI forces the best areas of each ecosystem in the region to be included in the cores regardless of the final distribution.

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  Designing Sustainable Landscapes: HUC6 Aquatic Cores and Buffers

  Kevin McGarigal, Brad Compton, Ethan Plunkett, Bill DeLuca, and Joanna Grand

  The HUC6 aquatic cores and associated buffers represent some of the principal Designing Sustainable Landscapes (DSL) landscape conservation design (LCD) products for aquatic ecosystems and species, and they are best understood in the context of the full LCD process described in detail in the technical document on landscape design (McGarigal et al 2017). These products were initially developed for the Connecticut River watershed as part of the Connect the Connecticut project (www.connecttheconnecticut.org) — a collaborative partnership under the auspices of the North Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative (NALCC), and subsequently developed for the entire Northeast region as part of the Nature's Network project (www.naturesnetwork.org). HUC6 aquatic cores represent a combination of lotic core areas (river and stream) and lentic core areas (lake and pond) selected at the HUC6 scale (Fig. 1). In combination with the terrestrial cores, they spatially represent the ecological network designed to provide strategic guidance for conserving natural areas, and the fish, wildlife, and other components of biodiversity that they support within the Northeast.

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  Designing Sustainable Landscapes: Local and Regional Vulnerability

  Kevin McGarigal, Brad Compton, Ethan Plunkett, Bill DeLuca, and Joanna Grand

  Local and HUC6 regional vulnerability are two of the principal Designing Sustainable Landscapes (DSL) landscape conservation design (LCD) products, which are best understood in the context of the full LCD process described in detail in the technical document on landscape design (McGarigal et al 2017). T These products were initially developed for the Connecticut River watershed as part of the Connect the Connecticut project (www.connecttheconnecticut.org) — a collaborative partnership under the auspices of the North Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative (NALCC), and subsequently developed for the entire Northeast region as part of the Nature's Network project (www.naturesnetwork.org).

  These two vulnerability products represent the vulnerability of high-valued places to future development, but differ in whether they reflect potential impacts of development on connectivity independent of any designated terrestrial cores (local vulnerability) or dependent on the designated cores (HUC6 regional vulnerability).

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  Designing Sustainable Landscapes: Probability of Development

  Kevin McGarigal, Ethan Plunkett, Brad Compton, Bill DeLuca, and Joanna Grand

  The integrated probability of development (probDevelop) is derived from an extraordinarily complex urban growth model described in detail in the technical document on urban growth (McGarigal et al 2017). The urban growth model is one of the major landscape change drivers in our Landscape Change, Assessment and Design (LCAD) model, in which it functions to simulate the stochastic growth of low-, moderate- and highintensity development during each 10-year timestep of a 70-year simulation between 2010- 2080. Because the urban growth model simulates the spatial footprint of development as a stochastic process, the development that occurs in any one simulation is merely a single stochastic realization of what could happen. Thus, any single urban growth realization is not particularly useful in landscape design. Instead, we developed this product to represent the integrated probability of development occurring between 2010-2080, which accounts for the type (low-, medium-, and high-intensity), amount and spatial pattern of development. This index represents the probability of development integrated across all of the possible development transitions occurring sometime between 2010 and 2080 at the 30 m cell level.

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  Designing Sustainable Landscapes: Northeast terrestrial ecosystem cores

  Kevin McGarigal, Brad Compton, Ethan Plunkett, Bill DeLuca, and Joanna Grand

  Northeast terrestrial ecosystem cores is one of the principal Designing Sustainable Landscapes (DSL) landscape conservation design (LCD) products, and it is best understood in the context of the full LCD process described in detail in the technical document on landscape design (McGarigal et al 2017). This particular product was developed for the Nature's Network project (www.naturesnetwork.org) — a collaborative partnership under the auspices of the North Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative (NALCC). Northeast terrestrial ecosystem cores represents a set of terrestrial core areas derived using only ecosystem-based criteria (i.e., no species-specific criteria) and scaled to identify the highest valued places by ecosystem and geophysical setting within the Northeast region (Fig. 1). These core areas are intended to complement the HUC6-scaled terrestrial core areas and connectors (see terrestrial core area network document, McGarigal et al 2017) that were derived as the primary ecological network. These regional ecosystem-based cores help identify the best places for each unique ecosystem and geophysical setting within the entire Northeast region, whereas the HUC6-based cores help identify the best places within each HUC6 to ensure a well-distributed core area network across the region. Both of these products are designed to provide strategic guidance for conserving natural areas, and the fish, wildlife, and other components of biodiversity that they support within the Northeast.

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  Designing Sustainable Landscapes: HUC6 Core Tiers

  Kevin McGarigal, Brad Compton, Ethan Plunkett, Bill DeLuca, and Joanna Grand

  HUC6 terrestrial core tiers is one of the principal landscape conservation design (LCD) products, and it is best understood in the context of the full LCD process described in detail in the technical document on landscape design (McGarigal et al 2017). This particular product was initially developed for the Connecticut River watershed as part of the Connect the Connecticut project (www.connecttheconnecticut.org) — a collaborative partnership under the auspices of the North Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative (NALCC), and subsequently developed for the entire Northeast region as part of the Nature's Network project (www.naturesnetwork.org). HUC6 terrestrial core tiers represents a two-tiered, spatially-nested hierarchy of terrestrial core areas and supporting landscapes. These tiers in combination with the HUC6 terrestrial core-connector network (see terrestrial core area network document, McGarigal et al 2017) and the aquatic core areas (see aquatic core areas document, McGarigal et al 2017) spatially represent a tiered ecological network for the Northeast region. This ecological network is designed to provide strategic guidance for conserving natural areas, and the fish, wildlife, and other components of biodiversity that they support within the Northeast.

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  Designing Sustainable Landscapes: HUC6 Terrestrial Core-Connector Network

  Kevin McGarigal, Brad Compton, Ethan Plunkett, Bill DeLuca, and Joanna Grand

  The HUC6 terrestrial core-connector network is one of the principal Designing Sustainable Landscapes (DSL) landscape conservation design (LCD) products, and it is best understood in the context of the full LCD process described in detail in the technical document on landscape design (McGarigal et al 2017). This particular product was initially developed for the Connecticut River watershed as part of the Connect the Connecticut project (www.connecttheconnecticut.org) — a collaborative partnership under the auspices of the North Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative (NALCC), and subsequently developed for the entire Northeast region as part of the Nature's Network project (www.naturesnetwork.org). The HUC6 terrestrial coreconnector network represents a set of terrestrial core areas and the connectors between them. In combination with the aquatic core areas, they spatially represent the ecological network designed to provide strategic guidance for conserving natural areas, and the fish, wildlife, and other components of biodiversity that they support within the Northeast

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  Designing Sustainable Landscapes: Local and Regional Conductance

  Kevin McGarigal, Brad Compton, Ethan Plunkett, Bill DeLuca, and Joanna Grand

  Local and HUC6 regional conductance are two of the principal Designing Sustainable Landscapes (DSL) landscape conservation design (LCD) products, which are best understood in the context of the full LCD process described in detail in the technical document on landscape design (McGarigal et al 2017). These particular products were initially developed for the Connecticut River watershed as part of the Connect the Connecticut project (www.connecttheconnecticut.org) — a collaborative partnership under the auspices of the North Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative (NALCC), and subsequently developed for the entire Northeast region as part of the Nature's Network project (www.naturesnetwork.org).

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  Designing Sustainable Landscapes: Subregions and urban growth associated with the SPRAWL paper

  Kevin McGarigal, Ethan Plunkett, Lisabeth L. Willey, Brad Compton, Bill DeLuca, and Joanna Grand

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  Designing Sustainable Landscapes: Hillshade

  Kevin McGarigal, Brad Compton, Ethan Plunkett, Bill DeLuca, and Joanna Grand

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  Designing Sustainable Landscapes: States

  Kevin McGarigal, Brad Compton, Ethan Plunkett, Bill DeLuca, and Joanna Grand

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  Designing Sustainable Landscapes: Ecoregions

  Kevin McGarigal, Brad Compton, Ethan Plunkett, Bill DeLuca, and Joanna Grand

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  Designing Sustainable Landscapes: Northeast region

  Kevin McGarigal, Brad Compton, Ethan Plunkett, Bill DeLuca, and Joanna Grand

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  Designing Sustainable Landscapes: Roads

  Kevin McGarigal, Brad Compton, Ethan Plunkett, Bill DeLuca, and Joanna Grand

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  Designing Sustainable Landscapes: Edited high-resolution NHD flowlines

  Kevin McGarigal, Brad Compton, Ethan Plunkett, Bill DeLuca, and Joanna Grand

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  Designing Sustainable Landscapes: Untransformed average annual daily traffic rate

  Kevin McGarigal, Brad Compton, Ethan Plunkett, Bill DeLuca, and Joanna Grand

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  Designing Sustainable Landscapes: HUC6 Watersheds

  Kevin McGarigal, Ethan Plunkett, Brad Compton, Bill DeLuca, and Joanna Grand

  This layer defines the subregions used for building cores in DSL landscape design (see technical document on landscape design, McGarigal et al 2017). It is based on the USGS Hydrologic Unit Codes (HUC) as extended in the USDA Watershed Boundary Dataset at the 6th level of the hierarchy (thus HUC6). In their original form these represent watersheds, sections of watersheds, and, especially in coastal areas, collections of watersheds of approximately equal size. They were chosen as the basic unit of our analysis because they were the size that stakeholders desired for subregions; are defined largely by natural boundaries, and are reasonably compact. We clipped the HUC6 boundaries to the Northeast Region and then manually edited the boundaries to make the HUCs and HUC fragments that remained within the Northeast Region more uniform in size and eliminate most disjunct HUC6s.

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  Designing Sustainable Landscapes: Climate Stress Metric

  Kevin McGarigal, Brad Compton, Ethan Plunkett, Bill DeLuca, and Joanna Grand

  Climate is a major factor in determining ecosystem distribution, composition, structure and function. Therefore, with climate change it is reasonable to anticipate heterogeneous climate stress across the landscape in response to heterogeneous shifts in climate normals (Iverson et al. 2014). The climate stress metric assesses the estimated climate stress that may be exerted on a focal cell in 2080 based on departure from the current climate niche breadth of the corresponding ecosystem. Essentially, this metric measures the magnitude of climate change stress at the focal cell based on the current climate niche of the corresponding ecosystem and the predicted change in climate (i.e., how much is the climate of the focal cell moving away from the current climate niche of the corresponding ecosystem) between 2010-2080 based on the average of two climate change scenarios (see below) (Fig. 1). Cells where the predicted climate suitability in the future decreases (i.e., climate is becoming less suitable for that ecosystem) are considered stressed, and the stress increases as the predicted climate becomes less suitable based on the ecosystem's current climate niche model. Conversely, cells where the predicted climate suitability in the future increases (i.e., climate is improving for that ecosystem) are considered unstressed and assigned a value of zero.

  The climate stress metric is an element of the ecological integrity analysis of the Designing Sustainable Landscapes (DSL) project (see technical document on integrity, McGarigal et al 2017). Consisting of a composite of 21 stressor and resiliency metrics, the index of ecological integrity (IEI) assesses the relative intactness and resiliency to environmental change of ecological systems throughout the northeast. As a stressor metric, climate stress values range from 0 (no effect from climate stress) to a theoretical maximum of 1 (severe effect; although in real landscapes, the metric never reaches 1). Note that the climate stress metric is computed separately for each ecosystem because each ecosystem has its own estimated climate niche (see below). This contrasts with all other stressor metrics, which are computed i

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  Designing Sustainable Landscapes: DSLland and Subsysland

  Kevin McGarigal, Brad Compton, Ethan Plunkett, Bill DeLuca, and Joanna Grand

  DSLland is the land cover map used as an organizational framework in the Designing Sustainable Landscapes (DSL) project (McGarigal et al 2017). It is derived primarily from The Nature Conservancy's Northeast Habitat Classification

  map (Ferree and Anderson 2013; Anderson et al. 2013; Olivero and Anderson 2013; Olivero-Sheldon et al 2014). To meet the needs of the DSL project, we substantially modified the TNC map. The TNC map is a hierarchical classification. For our purposes, we adopted the 'habitat' level of the hierarchy, which we refer to as "ecosystems", as our finest scale, as it is the most appropriate classification for our ecological assessment. The attribute table also includes the ‘formation’ level for users that prefer a coarse classification.