Skip to content

Circuitscape

Circuitscape.jl uses electrical circuit theory to model animal, plant and human migration patterns and their response to climate change
NASA
Circuitscape is used to:
  • Model the spread of HIV in Africa
  • Protect tigers in India
  • Model landscape connectivity for bobcats in New Hampshire
  • Understand the effect of climate change on animal migration in North America

In 2006, Brad McRae (1966-2017) published Isolation by Resistance, which uses electrical circuit theory to explain gene flow. In this model, animals, plants, humans and genes follow the path of least resistance – much like electrical current – in order to find food, water and accommodating habitats.

JuliaHub-Modeling-Platform-circuitscape

Since then, hundreds of papers have been published using this research, including Circuitscape: A Tool for Landscape Ecology (2008) and Circuitscape: Modeling Landscape Connectivity to Promote Conservation and Human Health (2016).

Circuitscape and Circuitscape.jl were created by Brad McRaeViral ShahRanjan Anantharaman and Tanmay Mohapatra to enable biologists, ecologists, geneticists and other scientists to put this theory to work and to leverage Julia’s superior speed, performance and ease of use.

Circuitscape has been used to model the spread of HIV in Africa, protect tigers in India, model landscape connectivity for bobcats in New Hampshire and understand the effect of climate change on animal migration in North America.

Circuitscape supporters include NASAThe Nature Conservancy, the Wilburforce Foundation and the Cougar Fund.

More information is available from NASA, from Circuitscape, and from Ranjan Anatharaman’s presentation at JuliaCon 2018.

OUR ENTERPRISE PRODUCTS

Learn More

Want to learn more about our capabilities? We are here to help.