Resource

Local Ecological Footprinting Tool (LEFT)

Resource description:

LEFT presents a simple yet effective method for mapping ecological important landscapes beyond protected areas. The method uses existing globally available web-based databases and models to provide an ecological score based on five key ecological features (biodiversity, fragmentation, threat, connectivity, and resilience) for every 300m pixel within any given region in the world. Co-ordinates (latitude and longitude) of the site location are all that are required as input and the resulting output is a coloured map indicating ecological value across the landscape.

Author/Contact:

Biodiversity Institute Oxford, University of Oxford.

Department of Zoology, The Tinbergen Building, South Parks Road, Oxford. OX1 3PS.

leftsupport@zoo.ox.ac.uk

Publication date:

Images

Requirements:

  • N/A

Advantages:

  • Novice users can submit an analysis within a few minutes and results are delivered to users by email within a few minutes of job submission.
  • This tool has been designed to be highly intuitive to use, and requires no specialized software or user expertise.

Constraints:

  • It provides a pre-planned tool to use before undertaking a more costly field-based investigation.

Development stage:

  • Full, working product