QUICK START GUIDE
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TerrAdapt:Cascadia is a dynamic conservation planning tool under ongoing development by TerrAdapt.org in collaboration with users across the 'Cascadia' region centered on Washington and southern British Columbia. It provides an always up-to-date, climate-smart, regional-scale perspective to local decision-making that has applications throughout the adaptive management cycle. TerrAdapt:Cascadia uses the latest remote sensing technologies and ecological modeling methods to monitor the changing environment and assess impacts to species and ecosystems across the region. Some common use-cases include:
Regional-scale monitoring and assessment of environmental conditions as well as habitat and connectivity for species and ecosystems of interest annually from 1984 to present.
Projecting future risks of climate change to regional species and ecosystems each decade out to the year 2100.
Prioritizing landscapes to identify critical areas for implementation of conservation actions that increase resilience to emerging threats (e.g., restoring habitat post-disturbance, protecting habitat, and mitigating movement barriers via wildlife crossing structures)
Informing a data-driven, climate-smart adaptive management process, including using our map and dashboard portals to monitor the impacts of environmental change, assess drivers of change, and update plans accordingly to address current threats and future risks
Generate reports and tell compelling stories about our changing landscape and the need to take action now to ensure resilience to threats.
All TerrAdapt:Cascadia products are provided seamlessly across our modeling extent:
Before accessing, make sure you are aware of and agree to follow the terms of the CC-BY 4.0 public license, including acknowledging and citing our work in any reproductions or derivative products you share publicly.
As you access our portals, please keep in mind the appropriate uses and important limitations of our data products.
You can access our data products and platform functionality via the following main elements of TerrAdapt:Cascadia:
The map (see documentation here) allows users to visualize our datasets in 3D via an interactive web-based viewer. Visit the map if you're interested in visualizing current and historical data related to landcover, vegetation, climate, our human footprint, as well as habitat and connectivity for regional species and ecosystems. The map also includes projections of future climate as well as habitat, and connectivity for regional species and ecosystems. The map can also be used to view spatial priority areas for regional conservation initiatives.
The dashboard (see documentation here) allows users to quantify and visualize change over an area of interest between two years of interest. We provide some common boundaries such as government administrative boundaries or watersheds, but users can also upload their own custom areas. Change can be assessed at annual intervals for most of the data layers available in the map portal described above over the historical period from 1984 to present. Change in climate and projected future habitat and connectivity for select regional species and ecosystems can also be assessed at decadal intervals between 1990 and 2100.
Our automated, cloud-based workflow updates all of our products automatically every year, available publicly on December 15th . The timing of our updates is driven primarily by the seasonality of vegetation growth in the region and the summer 'window' of opportunity to collect cloud-free satellite imagery. To produce most of our data products each year requires multi-spectral imagery collected by satellites over the entire growing season from spring through fall. The growing season also coincides with the window to collect cloud-free images before the onset of our cloudy late fall and winter season. After all of the input data is processed, the updated outputs take about a week to produce, followed by a review period where our staff performs quality checks prior to final release on December 15th.
To learn more about the data inputs we use to develop our TerrAdapt:Cascadia data products, visit the DATA INPUTS section of this documentation. Also in this documentation, you'll find the methods and model validation statistics in the METHODS AND VALIDATION section.
TerrAdapt:Cascadia is being developed as a partnership between TerrAdapt, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 2022, and many environmental organizations in Washington and British Columbia, including federal agencies, state and provincial agencies, local governments, tribes, First Nations, and environmental NGOs. Early development of TerrAdapt:Cascadia was led by a collaboration between the University of Washington Climate Impacts Group and the Cascadia Partner Forum.
If you have questions not answered by this documentation or would like to explore ideas for improving or expanding TerrAdapt:Cascadia, please email us at info@terradapt.org.
