CPTtool

Strategic data driven conservation approaches are gaining popularity as the budgets and for conservation is shrinking over the years. A high-resolution geospatial data indicating the ecosystem functions and economic activity can be very useful for any conservation expert or funding agency. In our main research article, we developed a framework for data driven conservation prioritization tool and a data visualization tool. The developed tools were implemented and tested for the U.S Gulf of Mexico coastal region defined by Gulf coast ecosystems restoration council. As a part of this tool development, we identified key priority attributes and data measures for the region through two rounds of 13 charrettes with the local, state, federal and other non-profit organizations involved in land conservation. This paper presents the developed measures that are derived from openly available geospatial and non-geospatial data sources. This data contains 20 measures at a resolution of one square km hexagon of which five measures indicate Habitat, three indicates Water Quality and Quantity, four indicates Living Coastal and Marine Resources, four indicates Community Resilience, and four indicates Economy. We found that the developed measures are useful for conservation planning in the U.S Gulf of Mexico coastal region.