Open source evaluation of kilometric indexes of abundance

Kilometric Abundance Index (KAI) is a common measure used in wildlife studies because it allows a straightforward comparison of species abundance in different sites or at different times. KAI expresses the ratio of the total number of individuals (or of signs of presence) observed along a transect by the total transect length covered at each site. v.transect.kia is a new tool for GRASS GIS, developed for automating the evaluation of KAI, reducing the risk of manual errors especially when handling large datasets. It can also split the transects according to one environmental variable (typically habitat type) and evaluate true 3D transect length. It calculates KAI using a point map of sightings and saves the results in the attribute table, the output can be displayed in any GIS or used for further statistical analysis. The tool has been tested on field data from Northern Italy for mountain hare (Lepus timidus), allowing a first wide-area estimate.

► We present a new module for GRASS GIS to evaluate the kilometric index of abundance.
► This automation is a support in data preparation, especially with large datasets.
► It reduces the risk of manual errors and prepares data for further analysis.
► Different processing options are available and the input requirements are easy to meet.
► It is open source software, available for Linux, MacOSX and Windows.