Wildlife corridor optimization for fragmented landscapes.
TerraLink is an open-source ecological corridor planning tool for improving connectivity across fragmented landscapes. It is available as a QGIS plugin, R package, and browser-based tool, and it accepts spatial data on habitat patches along with user-defined criteria such as connectivity goals, corridor constraints, and species-specific parameters.
Demos, teaching, outreach, quick exploration
Explore TerraLink without installing GIS software. Best for communicating the concept, testing simple examples, and sharing the tool with nontechnical collaborators.
Useful for lightweight examples, training, and outreach.
GIS practitioners, planners, consultants, conservation NGOs, agencies
Run TerraLink directly inside QGIS using raster or vector habitat layers. Best for hands-on spatial planning, scenario comparison, and map-based corridor design.
Recommended: install from the official QGIS Plugin Repository. A direct SORUS-hosted 1.8.1 zip is also available below.
Download direct zipResearchers, analysts, reproducible workflows
Use TerraLink in scripted workflows for repeatable analysis, batch processing, sensitivity testing, and publication-oriented methods.
CRAN package page for installation details and package metadata.
Get notified about new releases, feature updates, and availability across the QGIS, R, and browser versions of TerraLink.
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TerraLink accepts either habitat polygons or raster land-cover inputs, applies user-defined ecological and planning criteria, generates candidate corridor options, and returns spatial outputs and connectivity metrics for comparison.
The workflow below shows how patch detection, candidate corridor generation, optimization mode selection, and output metrics fit together in one planning sequence.
Prioritizes high-return corridor choices that connect multiple habitat areas efficiently, often creating several useful networks across the landscape.
Prioritizes building one dominant connected backbone, useful when the goal is to create a large coherent habitat network.
Prioritizes flow, redundancy, and alternative routes, helping identify corridors that reduce bottlenecks and improve whole-landscape movement potential.
Habitat fragmentation breaks landscapes into smaller and more isolated patches, reducing movement, dispersal, gene flow, and climate adaptation potential. TerraLink is designed to help restoration planners find leverage points where relatively small areas of restored or protected habitat can reconnect larger ecological systems.
TerraLink is open source and actively evolving. Feedback, peer review, feature requests, and contributions are welcome, especially from people working on real corridor planning, restoration prioritization, landscape ecology, and conservation technology.
