Conservation Assessment and
Prioritization System
(CAPS)

Documentation

This page contains links to all CAPS documentation, including a general description of the CAPS approach and a technical description of the program. Some documents are in pdf format and require Adobe Acrobat Reader to view.
NOTE, the documentation available below is incomplete. The complete documentation of CAPS is under development. The documents below, although not originally intended for public consumption, are being made available due to the large number of requests for information pertaining to our project.
CAPS Summary --This document (Microsoft Word format) provides a brief overview of our approach for assessing ecological integrity and biodiversity value based on ecological communities. Note, this document is not intended to provide a comprehensive technical description of the approach; rather, it is intended to provide a general overview of our assessment approach.
Algorithms Summary -- (temporarily not available while being revised) This document (Microsoft Word format) provides a somewhat technical description of the algorithms for each of the ecological integrity metrics described in the CAPS summary document above. Note, this document is not intended as a description of the psuedo-code associated with each algorithm; rather, it is intended to provide a written description of the algorithm that can be easily understood ,as well as technical details regarding input parameters, output, and the calculations involved.


For more information, please contact:
Dr. Kevin McGarigal
Department of Natural Resources Conservation
University of Massachusetts
304 Holdsworth Natural Resources Center
Box 34210
Amherst, MA 01003
Fax: (413) 545-4358
Phone: (413) 577-0655
Email: mcgarigalk@forwild.umass.edu