Assessment On The Suitability Of Giant Panda’s Habitat In Mabian Dafengding Nature Reserve

3S techniques are very important for wildlife habitat suitability study. However, their application on giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) study is weak, relatively. Mabian Dafengding Nature Reserve is located in Liangshan Mountains, Sichuan of China, a southern edge of current distribution of giant panda, with the habitat fragile, vulnerable to the threats. The habitat status there is seldom known, and no study of using 3S techniques by now.For that, by using LANDSAT-8/OLI and SRTM-DEM photographs and referring field investigations, this study made a first try. Totally,7 basic factors were selected. A standard to give the value to every factor was established. By using ArcGIS 9.3 and Erdas 9.2, as well as factor layers dividing, a single-factor assessment was firstly made. By using AHP (analytic hierarchy process), a multi-factor assessment was then made. The main results include:1. By single-factor assessment, for the altitude, the areas of suitable and unsuitable habitat of giant panda in the reserve were almost half to half; for the slope, unsuitable habitat was only about 8.2% of total area; for the slope aspect, unsuitable habitat was 1/5 about, and for the water resources, unsuitable ones was about 1/3.2. By single-factor assessment, for vegetation types, the areas of unsuitable habitat of giant panda in the reserve was about 18%; for the bamboos, unsuitables was about 40.7%.3. By single-factor assessment, the area that influenced by roads was limited in very small regions, with area less than 1% of the whole reserve’s.4. By multi-factors assessment, a weight calculation of 6 selected fators was made, with bamboo (34.3%)> vehetation type (24.3%)> distance to river (18.6%)> slope aspect (10.8%) > altitude (7.6%)> slope (4.4%).5. By multi-factors assessment, the suitable habitat in the reserve was estimated as 40% about the whole reserve, which mainly distributed in reserve core. While, unsuitable habitat was estimated as 60% od the whole, which distributed mainly located around the western and northern edges of the reverse.