GIS-Based Habitat Suitability Modeling for Geoforensic Analyses

Keywords: GIS, habitat suitability modeling, geoforensics, GBIF
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

Pollen is one of the most durable and ubiquitous trace evidence that can be recovered from people and objects during legal investigations. Underutilized use of pollen and other microbial fingerprints in geoforensic analyses should be addressed in the United States and worldwide. We generated habitat suitability maps of plants using open-source observation data and multiple statistical models to approximate pollen distribution to reduce forensic search efforts across different scales. We demonstrate promising results on search space reduction at a priori investigation extent. A generalizable search space reduction method at a global scale is possible. This study could potentially aid law enforcement professionals to optimize strategies for various investigations.