MAISRC researchers have developed an online dashboard—AIS Explorer—that both forecasts the introduction risk of aquatic invasive species to individual waterbodies and provides decision-making support for optimizing watercraft inspection efficacy.
After five years of development, the project team established a robust lake-connectivity network. With over 1.6 million data points of reported boater movements and a complex array of river connections, thousands of simulations were done to test the accuracy of the model and create the AIS Explorer.
AIS Explorer provides guidance on two key prevention methods:
- Surveillance: modeling the likelihood of new infestations
- Watercraft inspections: prioritization of physical intervention at the riskiest lakes
The AIS Explorer dashboard is free and open to the public. Users can focus on any lake in Minnesota, or view model results on a county level. To stay current, the underlying models update weekly to account for new infestations and changing risk dynamics.