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Cited by 115Wildlife-Road Interactions and ConservationSpecies Distribution and Climate ChangeWildlife Ecology and Conservation

Circuitscape in julia: empowering dynamic approaches to connectivity assessment

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Hall, Kimberly R., Anantharaman, Ranjan, Landau, Vincent A., Clark, Melissa, Dickson, Brett G., Jones, Aaron, Platt, Jim, Edelman, Alan +1 more·2021·Land
DOI 10.3390/land10030301
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Abstract

The conservation field is experiencing a rapid increase in the amount, variety, and quality of spatial data that can help us understand species movement and landscape connectivity patterns. As interest grows in more dynamic representations of movement potential, modelers are often limited by the capacity of their analytic tools to handle these datasets. Technology developments in software and high-performance computing are rapidly emerging in many fields, but uptake within conservation may lag, as our tools or our choice of computing language can constrain our ability to keep pace. We recently updated Circuitscape, a widely used connectivity analysis tool developed by Brad McRae and Viral Shah, by implementing it in Julia, a high-performance computing language. In this initial re-code (Circuitscape 5.0) and later updates, we improved computational efficiency and parallelism, achieving major speed improvements, and enabling assessments across larger extents or with higher resolution data. Here, we reflect on the benefits to conservation of strengthening collaborations with computer scientists, and extract examples from a collection of 572 Circuitscape applications to illustrate how through a decade of repeated investment in the software, applications have been many, varied, and increasingly dynamic. Beyond empowering continued innovations in dynamic connectivity, we expect that faster run times will play an important role in facilitating co-production of connectivity assessments with stakeholders, increasing the likelihood that connectivity science will be incorporated in land use decisions.

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Research works printed but not linked: 3

  1. Hilty, J.A., Keeley, A.T.H., Lidicker, W.Z., and Merenlender, A.M. (2019). Corridor Ecology: Linking Landscapes for Biodiversity Conservation and Climate Adaptation, Island Press. [2nd ed.].
  2. Shah, V., and McRae, B.H. (2008, January 19–24). Circuitscape: A Tool for Landcape Ecology. Proceedings of the 7th Python in Science Conference (SciPy 2008), Pasadena, CA, USA. Available online: http://conference.scipy.org/proceedings/scipy2008/SciPy2008_proceedings.pdf.
  3. McRae, B., and Shah, V.B. (2020, October 30). Circuitscape User Guide. Version 3.5, Updated December 2011. Available online: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265494222_Circuitscape_User_Guide.

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Authors
Hall, K. R., Anantharaman, R., Landau, V. A., Clark, M., Dickson, B. G., Jones, A., Platt, J., Edelman, A., & Shah, V. B.
Affiliations
  • North America Science, The Nature Conservancy, Haslett, MI 48840, USA
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US)
  • Conservation Science Partners (US)
  • Center for Resilience Science, The Nature Conservancy, Boston, MA 02111, USA
  • Conservation Science Partners, Inc., Truckee, CA 96161, USA
  • The Nature Conservancy (US)
  • North America Science, The Nature Conservancy, Minneapolis, MN 55124, USA
  • MIT Mathematics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
  • Julia Computing, Inc., Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
ORCID
Venue
Land
Publisher
MDPI AG
Published
2021-03-15
Volume
10
Issue
3
Pages
301
ISSN
2073-445X (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.3390/land10030301
OpenAlex
W3137042498
Cited by
115
References
191
Citations by year
2026: 20 · 2025: 28 · 2024: 22 · 2023: 26 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 6
FWCI
8.92
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Land (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • DSpace@MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (16-ECOCAST-0018)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Wildlife-Road Interactions and Conservation
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecological Modeling › Species Distribution and Climate Change
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Wildlife Ecology and Conservation
Keywords
Circuitscape, Julia, landscape connectivity, dynamic connectivity, species movement, computational efficiency, parallel computing, high-performance computing, stakeholder co-production, land use decision-making

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