Map created using QGIS 3.32 on a Mac using a 1:1500000 scale and the World Geodetic system (EPSG 3857)
Map details
Tourism/Habitat Fragmentation
Costa Rica is a highly sought out destination place for vacations due to abundant wildlife, beautiful beaches, and gorgeous rainforests. Unfortunately, due to popular demand and overall population growth, rainforests in Costa Rica are becoming urbanized. Wildlife and humans are having to figure out how to share the same space.
The Sloth Conservation Foundation does a lot of research into how wildlife, specifically how two and three-fingered sloths are affected by urbanization. Sloths are the most admitted animal into rescue centers in Costa Rica. Many of their biggest obstacles include: safely crossing roads that have fragmented their habitats, being killed by dogs, and being exploited by humans. These maps show the rainforests and waterways in Costa Rica, then where the human population fits on top. One of their biggest accomplishments are creating bridges over new roads to help piece back together fragmented habitat.
Country maps
Basemaps were found on Texas A&M University's online library. There were many links to different data sets for Costa Rica Admin 0 – GIS Information for Costa Rica.
Methods
For more information about the methods used to create these maps, please see the methods described on GitHub.
University of Kentucky, MAP671, October 2023
