July

Saskatchewan Prairie Ecozone Vegetative Change Model

Organization
Saskatchewan Environment

Author
Rochelle Joerissen

ESRI Software
ArcInfo Workstation 8.2; GRID; ArcGIS Desktop 8.3; ArcView 3.2a

Description
Using AML in Arc/Info and GRID, raster data is used to model the potential impact of changing climate on the vegetative component of the prairie ecozone. The model uses remapped classified Landsat data as the baseline vegetative descriptor. Climate moisture indices derived using IDW on the Australian Median Scenario climate model represents climate change. The 50 iterations represents 50 years. Each iteration creates new temporary grids for each individual class which are added to a yearly cumulative grid. The results are draped over a DEM hillshade which helps to observe subtle vegetative changes such as differences between north and south slopes.

Acknowledgements
Ron Anderson, University of Regina; E.H. (Ted) Hogg, NRCAN/RNCAN; Will Stafford, Saskatchewan Environment