A Conceptual Framework for Choosing Target Species for Wildlife-Inclusive Urban Design

Abstract

Recent research has highlighted the significance of cities for biodiversity, making them important places for conservation in their own right. Current conservation approaches in cities are mostly defensive. Thus, they focus on remnant pockets of natural areas or try to protect particular species that occur in the built environment. These approaches are vulnerable to further urban development and do not create habitats. An alternative strategy is to make wildlife an integral part of urban development and thereby create a new habitat in the built-up area. Here we address the challenge of choosing target species for such wildlife-inclusive urban design. The starting point of our conceptual framework is the regional species pool, which can be obtained from geo-referenced species data. The existing habitat types on and around the development site and dispersal barriers limit the species numbers to the local species potential. In the next step, the site’s potential for each species is analyzed—how can it be upgraded to host species given the planned development and the life-cycle of the species? For the final choice of target species, traits related to the human–animal interaction are considered. We suggest that stakeholders will be involved in the final species selection. Our approach differs from existing practice, such as expert choice of priority species, by (1) representing an open process where many species are potential targets of conservation, (2) the involvement of stakeholders in a participatory way. Our approach can also be used at larger spatial scales such as quarters or entire cities.

Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Urban Development

“…In these projects, it is essential to clarify which species can be successfully integrated into design projects. To this end, Apfelbeck et al [23] developed a conceptual approach for selecting target species for wildlife-friendly design, using the regional species pool as a starting point to develop a list of potential local species that could be suited to a site given dispersal and local habitat characteristics. Stakeholders can then be engaged using a participatory approach to identify focal species.…”

“…This Special Issue covers a broad geographical range, with contributions from Africa [17], Asia [18][19][20], Australia [21,22], Europe [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30] and North America [31][32][33]. It explores a range of ecosystems in the urban realm, spans natural remnants such as forests [30,32], wetlands [18,21], and natural grasslands [17,22], traditional urban greenspaces including cemeteries [33], gardens [29,31], and, finally, novel urban ecosystems such as green roofs and constructed wetlands [20,26], built-up areas [23], railway bridges [24] and emerging forests on vacant land [27]. In combination, a wide range of socio-cultural and environmental settings are explored and discussed.…”

“…Several papers explore biodiversity in relation to diverse features of urban environments and address a range of animal groups [21,24,27,31,33] and plants [17,18,20,22,27,30,32], including some multi-taxa studies [24,26,27]. Other papers explicitly address urban environments as socio-ecological systems [19,22,25], or further methodological approaches in understanding the people-nature intersection in cities [23,28,29]. Our selection of papers address four current topics in urban ecological research: pressures on biodiversity in cities, opportunities for biodiversity in cities, biodiversity as a component of socio-ecological systems, and new methodological approaches to urban biodiversity conservation and sustainable urban development ( Figure 1).…”

Smart Sustainable Cities of the New Millennium: Towards Design for Nature

“…Supporting and conserving biodiversity in urban environments is challenging [67,68]; nevertheless, several works show promising opportunities to do so [69]. For example, Apfelbeck et al [70] in the wildlife-inclusive design framework (Fig. 2a) suggest to select target species starting from both the regional species pool (georeferenced species data) and the local species potential determined by the existing habitat type around and within the development site (filter habitats).…”

Enabling Biomimetic Place-Based Design at Scale

“…Other frameworks can also be used for identifying focus species for a selected location. Work by Apfelbeck et al [44], for example, offers a framework for selecting target species for wildlife-inclusive urban design that takes into account local species, habitat availability, and site suitability, and could be readily adapted for use in biomimetic place-based design. For the government sector, actions included leveraging comprehensive existing environmental datasets, developing specifications to guide research, and encouraging further biological research through direct commissioning, funding, and incentives.…”