Assessing habitat loss, fragmentation and ecological connectivity in Luxembourg to support spatial planning

Almenar, Javier Babí; Bolowich, Alya Francesca; Elliot, Thomas; Sonnemann, Guido; Rugani, Benedetto

doi:10.1016/j.landurbplan.2019.05.004

Cited by 87 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 68 publications

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“…In order to minimize habitat loss, prevent fragmentation, and enhance ecological connectivity, spatial planners must implement alternative planning tools that are both effective and easy to utilize (Almenar et al, 2019). In order to ensure that ecological values are protected and used in a balanced manner, conservation methods must be investigated, analyzed, and planned; long-term processes must be examined and interventions must be made if necessary.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantification of the Change in Ecological Connectivity Using a Gis-Based Model and Current Complexity Metrics

Gülçin

Yilmaz

2020

Lnternational Journal of Geography and Geography Education

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Landscape patterns have been undergoing various changes on account of environmental and human factors. These changes affect ecological connectivity of landscapes; therefore existing connections are necessary to maintain sustainable habitats. Connectivity is associated with the diversity and composition of landscape structure. For this reason, when studying ecological connectivity, it is relevant to analyze the changes in diversity, composition, and fragmentation of landscape patterns. This study was conducted in Manisa, Turkey, where the impact of industrialization and urbanization on landscape is very significant. The aim of this study is to assess the changes in ecological connectivity based on an ecological connectivity model and landscape metrics that characterize landscape heterogeneity between 2000 and 2018. Largest Patch Index (LPI), Marginal Entropy (ENT), and Relative Mutual Information (RELMUTINF) were utilized to evaluate the fragmentation, diversity, and composition of the landscape, respectively. As a result of this study, forest loss was found to be 12,970 ha based on 18 years of land change. This has an adverse impact on the ecological connectivity, resulting in a decrease in the high and very high connectivity areas from 71.5% to 53.5%. At the landscape level, the decrease in the LPI from 3.55 to 2.30 shows that fragmentation has increased in Manisa. Since larger patches have higher species diversity in general, a drop in the LPI value indicates that species diversity has decreased over time. The most substantial observed changes include the homogenization of agricultural land and the fragmentation of forests. The results demonstrate that a combination of ecological connectivity and landscape metrics would be highly effective for extensive planning and interpretation.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantification of the Change in Ecological Connectivity Using a Gis-Based Model and Current Complexity Metrics

Gülçin

Yilmaz

2020

Lnternational Journal of Geography and Geography Education

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“…In fact, according to Plexida et al [56], there is no need to use too many landscape metrics to properly describe landscape heterogeneity and complexity; some of them, such as patch density, are suitable to describe Mediterranean landscape patterns irrespective of the scale [56], while the MPS provides data about the grain of the landscape [44]. Providing quantitative spatial data related to the different landscape structures through the measurements of appropriate landscape metrics can be extremely useful to transfer the concepts of landscape ecology to sustainable landscape planning and monitoring [42,43,57,58].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of Tuscany Landscape Structure According to the Regional Landscape Plan Partition

et al. 2021

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The landscape is considered a strategic asset by the Tuscan regional government, also for its economic role, meaning that a specific Landscape Plan has been developed, dividing the region into 20 Landscape Units and representing the main planning instrument at the regional level. Following the aims of the Landscape Plan and the guidelines of the European Landscape Convention, it is necessary to develop an adequate assessment of the landscape, evaluating the main typologies and their characteristics. The aim of this research is to carry out an assessment of the landscape diversity in Tuscany based on 20 study areas, analyzing land uses and landscape mosaic structures through the application of landscape metrics: number of land uses, mean patch size (MPS), Hill’s diversity number, edge density (ED), patch density (PD), land use diversity (LUD). The results highlight a correlation between the landscape typologies (forest, agricultural, mixed, periurban) and the complexity of the landscape structure, especially in relation to MPS and PD, while the combination of PD and LUD calculated on the basis of a hexagonal grid allows obtaining landscape complexity maps. Despite the phenomena of reforestation and urban sprawl of recent decades, Tuscany still preserves different landscape typologies characterized by a good level of complexity. This is particularly evident in mixed landscapes, while agricultural landscapes have a larger variability because of different historical land organization forms. The methodology applied in this study provided a large amount of data about land uses and the landscape mosaic structure and complexity and proved to be effective in assessing the landscape structure and in creating a database that can represent a baseline for future monitoring.

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“…According to Perky et al (2018) the urban sprawl impacts in different ways distinct species, due to their intrinsic resilience ability. This way, the functional connectivity modeling can be skewed if it is only based on one species (Almenar et al, 2019), as well as overestimated if we do not consider the response time to habitat loss and deforestation (Semper-Pascual et al, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing Environmental Criteria to Support Forest Connectivity

Vanderley-Silva

Valente

2021

Preprint

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Establishing forest connection in landscapes under urban sprawl is essential for maintaining the ecological processes and ensuring biodiversity conservation. However, the major challenge is incorporated the ecological network in the land-use/land-cover planning. This way, the main objective of the study was the evaluation of environmental criteria for prioritizing areas to obtain forest functional connectivity in a landscape subject to the urban sprawl. The second objective was to understand how the criteria are associated with the structural forest attributes represented by traditional landscape ecology metrics. The criteria were defined through the literature review, representing the landscape characteristics as the topographic, conflicts, and biotics. The metrics used to characterize the forest structure were perimeter, shape index, and distance to the nearest neighbor. They were generated to a selected group of forest remnants, which represent the landscape forest structure. Sampling the criteria and forest fragments maps (i.e., different maps representing the metrics-values) through the hexagon network, we assessed how the criteria are associated with the structural forest attributes. The statistical analysis used to evaluate these sampled values were The Moran Global (Moran I) and Moran Local (LISA). We obtained that the urban expansion process is diffuse, although it does not occur randomly in our landscape. The criteria slope, TWI, distance from drainage network, distance from highways, distance from the low-density urban area, and distance from forest patches have characteristics that support this process. Furthermore, our results indicated a spatial autocorrelation among metrics and after, among metrics and these criteria. Also, we obtained that the external influences on the fragments did not occur randomly and that the criteria act on the landscape. This way, through these criteria, we can identify regions where it is possible to have the persistence of forest fragments, even though in places under the impact of urban sprawl.

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Assessing habitat loss, fragmentation and ecological connectivity in Luxembourg to support spatial planning

Cited by 87 publications

References 68 publications

Quantification of the Change in Ecological Connectivity Using a Gis-Based Model and Current Complexity Metrics

Quantification of the Change in Ecological Connectivity Using a Gis-Based Model and Current Complexity Metrics

Assessment of Tuscany Landscape Structure According to the Regional Landscape Plan Partition

Assessing Environmental Criteria to Support Forest Connectivity

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