Renewables in the Mojave Desert
This map shows the result of an analysis to characterize the distribution of conservation values across the Mojave Desert Ecoregion.
This assessment identifies areas in the West Mojave Desert where human activities have degraded the land’s conservation value, making them potentially low impact locations for solar development. Authors also describe a comprehensive mitigation program that aims to produce a net improvement to the conservation status of species and habitats in the West Mojave Desert.
The Mojave Desert Ecoregional Assessment represents an important milestone in conservation planning because of how it improves upon our traditional “portfolio map,” which is often misunderstood to mean that the areas outside the “portfolio” of priority conservation areas are not important. In actuality, conservation success inside a portfolio area depends on what happens outside it. By characterizing how conservation values vary across the whole Mojave landscape, the assessment maps better support land use decisions, such as how best to site and mitigate the impacts of renewable energy development. The data supporting this assessment are available for download here.
This dataset is a product of the Mojave Desert Ecoregional Assessment and characterizes the distribution of biodiversity conservation values and land disturbance to help inform regional land-use and conservation investment. The data were grouped into four categories of conservation value: Ecologically Core, Ecologically Intact, Moderately Degraded, and Highly Converted. Geodata are available in Esri format.
