FIPEX v10.4: An ArcGIS Desktop Add-in for assessing impacts of fish passage barriers and longitudinal connectivity of rivers

Abstract

FIPEX v10.4 is designed to decrease the time required to assess the individual and cumulative effects of river barriers to fish passage and to assess river connectivity from headwaters to outflow (i.e., longitudinal connectivity) Loss of longitudinal connectivity due to anthropogenic barriers is a global problem contributing to unprecedented biodiversity loss in freshwater biomes. Yet, assessing longitudinal connectivity from the perspective of fish and prioritizing ecological restoration is challenging without specialized tools. The Fish Passage Extension (FIPEX) v10.4 is designed to bridge network analysis and Geographic Information System (GIS) in support of river connectivity assessments. It is developed as an open source VB.NET ‘Add-In’ for ArcGIS Desktop (v10.4+) with an option to run R statistical software scripts to calculate the Dendritic Connectivity Index (DCI).

Keywords

• River
• Networks
• Connectivity
• Ecology
• Barriers