Conservation Prioritization Tool and Benefits Calculator

This is a sample of two online tools for identifying priority areas for conservation action and estimating benefit metrics for specific properties developed by the Conservation Trust for North Carolina and the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability at Duke University.

The conservation prioritization tool finds the sub-watersheds in North Carolina with the greatest potential to provide a set of user-selected conservation benefits. It allows users to identify priority areas for future conservation work within the entire state or a defined region. This high-level tool allows for quick and easy exploration without the need for spatial analysis expertise.

The benefits calculator tool provides estimates of conservation benefits for specific areas of interest, such as individual properties. This information can be used to communicate about the benefits provided by currently conserved properties, or to support decisions about conserving new areas. For example, you could use this tool to compare the potential benefits of two properties under consideration for conservation or to generate information to include in a funding proposal. An accompanying  reporting template  provides text describing each benefit, with places to fill in specific benefit scores from the calculator tool, to drop into proposals or reports.

This example is part of a suite of conservation plans, story maps and communications completed by Land and Climate Grant awardees. The Land and Climate Grant Program is a joint initiative of Land Trust Alliance and the Open Space Institute. The Program provides grants and technical assistance to land trusts and conservation groups to support the development of climate-informed land conservation, stewardship or communications plans addressing issues such as habitat resilience, carbon mitigation, and community adaptation to climate impacts such as stronger storms, flooding, drought, fire or extreme heat.