Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability

  April 11 (Thursday) at 11 am ET    Register

Lecture Title:  Spatial Optimization and Conservation Biology

Abstract: In biological conservation, there can be a number of scales over which species protection and habitat analysis has been applied, from the grand macro-scale of The Nature Conservancy’s approach to target regions for species protection, to modeling core habitat at the meso-scale, and to analyzing habitat specifics at the micro-scale. In this presentation examples at all three scales of decision making and modeling are presented, involving such keystone species as the fisher (Pekania pennanti), the California spotted owl (Strix occidentalis occidentalis), and the San Joaquin Kit Fox (Vulpes macrotis mutica). Several spatial analytic models are discussed that have been developed and applied in reserve site selection, the estimation of core habitat, and the search for key features of habitat requirements. In every case, it seems clear that our understanding is often limited by the lack of appropriate data and the weakness of commonly used software. This talk is based upon research supported by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, and the California Forestry Association.

Richard Church is a Distinguished Professor, Emeritus of Geography at UCSB. He received his PhD in Environmental Systems Engineering from The Johns Hopkins University. Before joining the faculty at UCSB, he was an Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He has taught courses in Geography, Management Science, Industrial Engineering, and Civil & Environmental Engineering. Prof. Church’s research is concentrated on spatial optimization and Geographic Information Science applied to urban systems, environmental and natural resource protection, forest operations, transportation systems, and location theory and modeling. He has published more than 275 papers in Regional Science, Geography, Conservation Biology, Forest Systems operations, Transportation, Operations Research, Environmental Modeling, and Environmental Engineering. Dr. Church has served as a consultant to a number of companies and governmental agencies on a wide variety of problems (logistics, environmental management, site selection, and transportation). In 2022, he was elected a Member of the National Academy of Sciences. He is also a Fellow of the Regional Science Association International, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and a Fellow of the Institute of Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS). He is the recipient of the outstanding Graduate Mentor Award from UCSB, the Lifetime Achievement in Location Award (Section on Location Analysis of INFORMS), the University Consortium for Geographical Information Science Research Award, the Walter Isard Award from North American Regional Science Council (2018) and The William Alonso Memorial Prize for Innovative Work in Regional Science.

Learn more about Richard Church