Conefor Sensinode

Conefor Sensinode 2.2 (CS) is a new software package that allows quantifying the importance of habitat areas for the maintenance or improvement of landscape connectivity. It is conceived as a tool for decision-making support in landscape planning and habitat conservation, through the identification and prioritization of critical sites for ecological connectivity.

CS includes new connectivity indices (integral index of connectivity, probability of connectivity) that have been shown to present an improved performance compared to some other existing indices and to be particularly suited for landscape conservation planning and change monitoring applications (Saura & Pascual-Hortal 2007, Pascual-Hortal & Saura 2006). These indices are based on graph structures and on the concept of measuring habitat availability at the landscape scale. They consider a patch itself as a space where connectivity occurs, integrating the connected area existing within the patches (intrapatch connectivity) with the area made available by the connections with other habitat patches in the landscape (interpatch connectivity).

CS is simple to use and runs in any standard computer with a Windows operative system. CS is distributed free of charge for non-commercial use, with the only condition of citing the software (Saura & Torné 2009) and the most-related references (Pascual-Hortal & Saura 2006, Saura & Pascual-Hortal 2007, Saura & Rubio in press). CS has been developed by S. Saura and J. Torné at the Polytechnic University of Madrid, University of Lleida and Forest Technology Centre of Catalonia and funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and European FEDER funds through Conefor (REN2003-01628/GLO), Ibepfor (CGL2006-00312/BOS), Montes-Consolider (CSD2008-00040) and Decofor (AGL2009-07140/FOR) projects. The Fortran source codes of Sensinode 1.0 (Landgraphs package) by Dean L. Urban (Duke University, USA) were the starting point for the development of the new CS codes in which the new metrics and developments have been implemented.

Coming in 2010: A new Conefor Sensinode version will be released including new important methodological developments (see the three fractions described in the paper in press in Ecography) and capabilities (such as extending the importance analysis to individual links or connectors). In case you are interested in this new version before the final version is published, we may be able to provide an alpha/beta compilation (please request it through the contact form available at this website).

The preferred reference for citing CS is the following:  

• Saura, S. & J. Torné. 2009. Conefor Sensinode 2.2: a software package for quantifying the importance of habitat patches for landscape connectivity. Environmental Modelling & Software 24: 135-139.

Title photograph by Javier Gordo Alonso (Junta de Castilla y León)