Terrestrial Intactness (Classified)

This category of planning priorities in the CEC 2023 Land-Use Screens provides an estimate of terrestrial landscape condition based on the extent to which human impacts such as agriculture, urban development, natural resource extraction, and invasive species have disrupted the landscape across the State of California. It is based on the open-source logic modeling framework Environmental Evaluation Modeling System (EEMS) developed by Conservation Biology Institute (CBI). This multicriteria evaluation model result, last updated in 2016 and resolved at 1-kilometer square, spans values ranging from -1 to 1. The higher end of the spectrum indicates areas that are relatively intact based on the more than 30 input variables, and values in the lower end of the spectrum indicate where these human impacts to disturb the landscape and ecological function are relatively high.1 In the adapted version of the CBI Terrestrial Landscape Intactness given here, the dataset is partitioned into high and low categories based on the mean. Values of the dataset that lie above 0.3 are considered highly intact and are used as an exclusion. Values of the dataset that are less than or equal to 0.3 are allowed to remain in consideration for resource potential. Applying the partition at the mean allows for lands that are relatively more intact than disturbed to be considered for resource potential. The high category of landscape intactness given by this dataset is used as an exclusion in both the Core and SB 100 Terrestrial Climate Resilience Study screens. This layer is featured in the CEC 2023 Land-Use Screens for Electric System Planning data viewer.More information about this layer and its use in electric system planning is available in the Land Use Screens Staff Report in the CEC Energy Planning Library.  [1] Degagne, R., J. Brice, M. Gough, T. Sheehan, and J. Strittholt. 2016. “Terrestrial Landscape Intactness 1 kilometer, California.” Conservation Biology Institute.https://databasin.org/datasets/e3ee00e8d94a4de58082fdbc91248a65/