Version: 0.1
Supported QGIS version: 2.x
Licence: GNU GPLv3
Landscape Connectivity Toolbox is a QGIS plugin conceived as a toolbox for the study of landscape. It enables the user to model landscape mobility and flow according to least-cost path networks and circuit theory models from the open-source software Circuitscape. It presents the algorithms in the same tool in order to ease the usage of both approaches as complementary. The LCP Network algorithm is borrowed from the LCP Network plugin, which has been adapted for the current toolbox. The implementation of the Circuitscape provider is based on a previous QGIS plugin.
The plugin is accessed through the QGIS Processing Toolbox.
It is necessary to install Circuitscape before the installation of the plugin.
The plugin applies the shortest path algorithm developed by Edsger W. Dijkstra to find the optimal path between two points. It takes a vector layer with points and calculates the optimal route between all of them across a cost surface raster. The network path is provided in a single line vector layer. Moreover, it creates a raster layer that contains the accumulated cost for each of the points .
From the toolbox, a vector layer with multiple points is required as the focal node. The tool automatically extracts the coordinates from QGIS and creates a unique ID for each point. It is also possible to provide a cost surface raster as a focal node. On the other hand, it is also necessary to specify one raster file as the resistance map with the cost values (resistances), which is automatically translated to ESRI ASCII. Circuitscape provides four modelling modes (Pairwise, Advanced, One-To-All and All-To-One) that are enabled through the toolbox. For further reference on the differences and the output, please check Circuitscape's user guide.
You can find the installation instructions in the following document.
Developed by Guillem Domingo (guillem.dri@gmail.com) as part of the MSc GIS dissertation at the University of Edinburgh.