Habitat Priority Planner: A New Planning Tool for Coastal Communities

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There is nothing simple about managing natural resources. Use the Habitat Priority Planner to sort options, develop and change scenarios, and answer questions such as

• Where should we place the conservation boundaries?
• How do we incorporate strategic conservation planning into our development plans?
• What areas fit criteria?
• How do we prioritize conservation goals for this region?
• Where are we most likely to find a plant, animal, or demographic?
• Where is the best place to build this dock, marina, school, or road?
• What resources or infrastructure would the proposed boundary impact?

Quickly Map Your Options, Quickly Show Your Results

The Habitat Priority Planner (HPP) was designed with the local planner, coastal conservation group, and the coastal manager in mind. HPP is a spatial decision support tool designed to assist users in prioritizing important areas in the landscape or seascape for conservation or restoration action.What makes this tool unique is the ease with which the scenarios can be displayed and changed, making this a helpful companion when working with a group. In addition to the scenarios, the tool also generates pertinent reports, maps, and data tables.

1. Click the download link below.
2. Save the download (HPP.zip) to your computer.
3. Open HPP.zip and extract the two files.
4. Double click Setup.exe to run the HPP installer.
5. Download HPP now

New Version 2/22/2008 (Service Pack 4 required)
Note to earlier version users: The new version requires Service Pack 4. Please uninstall older versions of HPP and download the newest version to take advantage of our latest improvements.

View help documentation (PDF)
Help Documentation contains step by step installation, tool use, and tool theory as well as some useful resources in the appendix.

Sample Functions

• Inventory and assess habitat conditions
• Identify and rank potential restoration and conservation sites
• Utilize interactive mapping and prioritization
• Provide spatial support to natural resource strategic planning efforts
• Analyze “what if” scenarios for proposed changes in land use or land cover
• Evaluate the impact of management decisions on habitat quality

Powerful, but Easy to Use. The tool contains three modules: habitat classification, habitat analysis, and data exploration. Habitat classification allows the user to select specific habitats that are relevant to their site-specific question. The habitat analysis module allows users to perform commonly used, pre-packaged spatial analysis metrics and to analyze site-specific supporting data. Data exploration allows the user to prioritize habitats based on user criteria with stakeholders, project teams, or interest groups in an interactive environment. 

User Requirements

• Skill: intermediate experience with geographic information systems (ArcGIS)
• Software: ESRI ArcMap 9.2 (Service Pack 4) with Spatial Analyst

Data Requirements

• Land cover data in a common raster format (e.g., NOAA’s Coastal Change Analysis Program (C-CAP) data)
• Point, line, or polygon data sets that fit your project goals

Note to Potential Users

Although HPP can be used with a limited knowledge of GIS, the most accurate interpretation of analysis results requires experience with the concepts and limitations of landscape ecology and ecological spatial analysis. Ideally, a team of experienced users with varied skill sets would collaborate in the use of HPP to generate habitat priorities and guide the operation of the tool. The user manual includes several sources for additional information on landscape metrics and definitions of terminology.  

For More Information

We want to hear from you! Join the HPP support list server. Exchange ideas, ask questions, tell us how you use the tool, and build the user network for the Habitat Priority Planner. You can unsubscribe at any time. Please refer to the “HPP Help” documentation first for general user questions..