Significant Biodiversity Areas

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My map includes data on the Significant Biodiversity Areas (SBAs) for the Hudson River estuary region of New York State.  The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) Hudson River Estuary Program worked with the New York Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at Cornell University and the NY Heritage Program to develop 22 landscape areas with a high concentration of biological diversity in a region.  Biodiversity is the variety of life in a particular habitat or ecosystem.  To determine SBAs; unique topography, geology, hydrology, and biology are taken into consideration.  I added the layer Population Change which documented the annual compound rate of total population change in the US from 2000 to 2010.  Population change was an important layer to document because people are one of the main influences on biodiversity. 

Population change is important to map because people highly affect and influence the biodiversity in an area.  The significant biodiversity areas are developed in the Hudson River estuary region and consist of 22 landscape areas.  The Hudson River flows straight through the Hudson Valley region of New York.  The major biodiversity areas are near Albany and run through Beacon, Peekskill, Middletown, Pompton Lakes and Hackettstown.  The USA population change from 2000 to 2010’s map legend is organized by color and percentage.  The dark green represents population change from 1.5% to 9.0%.  Middle green is 1.0% to 1.4%.  Light green is .1% to .9%.  Yellow is .2% to 0%.  Orange is -.7% to -.3%.  Pink is -5.5% to .8%.  Most biodiversity areas have a population change represented by light green.  The area with the highest population change is near East Stroudsburg.  The areas with the second highest population change (middle green color) are Peekskill, Middletown, and West Milford.