Ryan Perkl

Ryan Perkl, Ph.D. is an assistant professor in the School of Landscape Architecture and Planning and an affiliated member of faculty for both the Arid Lands Resource Sciences Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program and the Institute of the Environment at the University of Arizona. He holds degrees from Clemson University in both Environmental Design and Planning (Ph.D) and City and Regional Planning (MS) as well as a BS in Environmental Science and Land Use Planning from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. With a primary focus in geospatial components of environmental and conservation planning, his past research has involved the development and evaluation of spatial habitat patch models, development of trans-boundary and ecoregion-scale connectivity models and conservation plans, assessing the use of human footprint datasets in corridor modeling, investigating the environmental and social impacts of conservation easements, and the implementation of projection-based modeling in infrastructure planning. Dr. Perkl’s current research focuses on wildlife connectivity modeling and corridor design whereas he was acknowledged as one of two “Best Lightning Talks” during the 2012 GeoDesign Summit for his work entitled “GeoDesigning Landscape Linkages: Coupling GIS and Corridor Design in Conservation Planning”. In addition to being featured in the 2012 Summer Edition of ArcNews, he has also recently published co-authored work in a book entitled Landscape-scale Conservation Planning with an additional manuscript in-press for the journal “Issues in Ecology”. Dr. Perkl is also a research PI currently under contract with the Arizona Department of Game and Fish where he is leading a team involved in modeling landscape integrity and connectivity for the State of Arizona.

Degrees

• MCRP, City and Regional Planning, Clemson Univ, 2005
• Ph.D., Environmental Design & Planning, Clemson Univ, 2010