Clients
Virgin River Watershed Habitat Conservation Plan
- Client
- City of Mesquite, NV
- Services
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- Web Applications
- Technologies
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- ESRI
Challenge
The Virgin River Watershed area near the City of Mesquite, Nevada houses a large community of diverse wildlife species. The Virgin River is one of the few rivers in Nevada that still has meanders and is not influenced by dams. Over the last decade, rapid population growth has created a need for property development. Under the dictates of the federal Endangered Species Act, the City is required to develop a Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) which will provide a detailed plan to preserve species’ populations throughout each land development stage. The developers of the Virgin River HCP asked Farallon to create a GIS-based web data management system that would provide the plan developers with information about ecological communities and individual endangered species habitats.
Solution
Farallon created a GIS web application built with ESRI’s ArcIMS using .NET and custom web services. The site tracks and manages species’ data such as population and habitat location for the area’s endangered species. The web interface allows users to select specific geographic areas on a general map of the Virgin River watershed to determine if endangered species are present. By providing a visual representation of species’ locations through a user-accessible system, the City of Mesquite can more efficiently protect the surrounding areas from land development and protect the endangered species.