Suitability ModelingLeast-Cost PathTerrain Analysis

Mountain Lion Habitat Suitability — LA County

Least-cost corridor over a terrain hillshade — Los Angeles County

Role

Sole analyst

Affiliation

GEOG 4xx — Spatial Modeling

Date

2025

Tools

ArcGIS ProSpatial AnalystPython

Research question

Which corridors let mountain lions move between protected habitat patches with the least landscape resistance?

Objective

Build a defensible cost surface from terrain and land cover, then derive least-cost paths linking core habitat patches across an urbanized county.

Data

Methodology / Workflow

1
Derived slope and aspect from the DEM and reclassified each to a movement-cost scale.
2
Assigned land-cover resistance weights (developed = high, chaparral = low).
3
Combined layers into a single cost surface via weighted overlay.
4
Computed least-cost distance and backlink rasters, then traced corridors between patch centroids.

Maps & results

Click any map to enlarge

Fig. 1 — Slope reclassified to movement cost.

Fig. 2 — Combined landscape-resistance surface.

Fig. 3 — Least-cost corridors between core patches.

Live ArcGIS web map

Interactive ArcGIS Online web map — 16:9 responsive embed.
Paste the share URL into arcgisEmbedUrl for this project.

Interactive

Findings

Two viable corridors remain, both pinching to under 400 m where they cross major freeways.
Slope contributes more to total path cost than land cover in the northern patches.
Identified one underpass location where a wildlife crossing would reconnect isolated habitat.