Assessment of Habitat Quality in the Western Region of Mongolia Using the InVEST-Based Model

Abstract

The western region of Mongolia is the homeland of a number of endangered species, among them saiga and snow leopard. This region supports healthy populations of threatened wildlife. Therefore, this investigation is significant in detecting the quality and degradation of habitat for this region. The aim of this study is to assess habitat quality using a tool to support the decision-making process. We applied two widely used models: the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Trade-offs (InVEST)-based habitat quality model and the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). A geographic information systems (GIS)-based AHP model was used to estimate the weight of each threat. The InVEST-based habitat quality model was used to integrate information on land use and land cover (LULC) and threats to biodiversity to assess habitat quality for the given area. For the data analysis, eight threats were prepared (urban land, mining areas, paved and unpaved roads, cropland, location of herders, and nighttime light). The raster data were obtained from Landsat Operational Land Imager (OLI) imagery, Google Earth, and a Mongolian geodatabase. These raster files of the distribution and intensity of each threat were assigned values between 0 and 1. After estimation of the weighted value of each threat, we assessed the threat impact on specific LULC types. The weighted value was created by applying the Eigen vector, which determined each threat's impact on the habitat. Finally, we generated two spatial distribution maps: habitat quality and habitat degradation. The results showed that high-quality habitats were detected in the special protected areas and low-density herder camp areas. Most low-quality habitats were detected in the areas that overlapped with human activity. A large portion of the study area was highly affected by unpaved road impacts. The resulting habitat quality and habitat degradation maps are a source of valuable information that will contribute to developing nature conservation planning and improving ecosystem services.