尽管其有效性（或成本效益）仍存争议，但通过保护廊道连接生境残余斑块，仍是缓解野生动物生境丧失与破碎化对生物多样性负面影响的一种途径。然而，保护廊道的规划与决策过程常涉及多重主观性与不确定性因素，涵盖环境、经济、社会及政治等多个维度。这些因素可能限制廊道的连续性，导致所规划廊道由彼此隔离的生境斑块构成，仅作为物种迁移的“踏脚石”。为支持此类“踏脚石”廊道的规划，我们设计并实现了一种基于栅格的GIS模型，该模型可表征并搜索跨越多种土地覆被类型的最优孤立斑块序列。本模型具有两个关键独创性：第一，它同步选取踏脚石斑块及其穿越路径，二者共同构成廊道；这一表征方式适用于需引导生物沿廊道移动的空间规划行动，例如确定植被种植或生态修复的具体位置；第二，与现有最小成本路径模型不同，本模型无需对各类土地覆被进行适宜性（或成本）的量化赋值，仅依赖其相对排序。尽管主观性与不确定性无法完全消除，但已显著降低。我们将该模型应用于卢旺达一项保护项目，旨在通过营造本土植物树篱，增强两座国家公园之间的连通性，以支持传粉鸟类的扩散。结果表明，该模型可快速初步划定踏脚石廊道的候选路线，并有助于保护规划早期探索阶段的工作。

Although its effectiveness (or cost-effectiveness) remains debated, connecting habitat remnants through conservation corridors is an approach to mitigate negative effects of wildlife habitat loss and fragmentation on biodiversity. However, multiple subjective and uncertain factors are often involved in conservation corridor planning and decision-making, ranging from environmental and economic to social and political. These can limit corridor continuity, leading to corridors consisting of isolated habitat fragments that act as “stepping stones” for species movement. To provide computational support for planning such “stepping stones” corridors, we design and implement a raster-based GIS model that characterizes and searches for an optimal sequence of isolated patches across a mosaic of land cover types. The model is unique in two key aspects. First, it simultaneously selects the stepping stones and a path traversing them, which collectively form a corridor. This representation is useful for spatial planning actions engaging organisms to follow a corridor, such as identifying locations for planting or restoration. Second, unlike existing least-cost path models, no quantification of land cover types in terms of suitability (or cost) is required; their rank-ordering is used instead. While subjectivity and uncertainty may remain, they are substantially reduced. We apply the model to a conservation project in Rwanda aimed at enhancing connectivity between two national parks through the establishment of a hedgerow of native plants supporting pollinator birds’ dispersal. The results suggest that the model enables rapid initial delineation of candidate routes for stepping stone corridors and facilitates early exploratory stages of conservation planning.