Authors: Stephanie K Courtney Jones, Luke S O’Loughlin, Danswell Starrs, Jacinta E Humphrey, Stephanie A Pulsford, Hugh Allan, Matt Beitzel, Kym Birgen, Suzi Bond, Jenny Bounds, Deborah Bower, Renee Brawata, Ben Broadhurst, Emma Carlson, Simon Clulow, Saul Cunningham, Luke Dunn, Lisa Evans, Bruno Ferronato, Donald B Fletcher, Arthur Georges, Amy-Marie Gilpin, Mark A Hall, Brian Hawkins, Anke Maria Hoeffer, Brett Howland, Damian C Lettoof, Mark Lintermans, Michelle Littlefair, Tanya Latty, Tyrone H Lavery, Zohara Lucas, George Madani, Kim Maute, Richard NC Milner, Eric J Nordberg, Thea O’Loughlin, Woo O’Reilly, Megan O’Shea, Laura Rayner, Euan G Ritchie, Natasha M Robinson, Stephan D Sarre, Manu E Saunders, Ben C Scheele, Julian Seddon, Rob Speirs, Ricky Spencer, Ingrid Stirnemann, David M Watson, Belinda A Wilson, Peter J Unmack, Yuying Zhao, and Melissa A Snape
Published in: Biological Conservation
Abstract
Urban planning which enhances native biodiversity in and around cities is needed to address the impacts of urbanisation and conserve urban biodiversity. The “Biodiversity Sensitive Urban Design” (BSUD) framework incorporates ecological knowledge into urban planning to achieve positive biodiversity outcomes through improved urban design and infrastructure development. BSUD includes principles to direct strategic design and placement of connected wildlife habitat. However, effective BSUD implementation requires defining and quantifying the landscape-scale habitat connectivity needs of a range of taxon groups within urban contexts.
The aim of our study was to use expert elicitation to address these gaps in landscape-scale habitat connectivity currently limiting the capacity of urban planning. We estimated habitat connectivity needs for seven representative taxon groups in urban environments, including ideal habitat, habitat constraints, barriers to movement, and movement thresholds that determine habitat connectivity.
In using expert elicitation to quantify habitat connectivity requirements for urban biodiversity, our study provides insights on both the usefulness of expert elicitation to inform urban habitat connectivity planning generally, and the functional habitat connectivity requirements of our focal taxon groups specifically. Overall, we consider our expert-derived estimates of connected habitat to be a highly useful set of baseline data for habitat and connectivity modelling and urban planning for a range of taxon groups.
Courtney Jones SK, O’Loughlin LS, Starrs D, Humphrey JE, Pulsford SA, Allan H, Beitzel M, Birgen K, Bond S, Bounds J, Bower D, Brawata R, Broadhurst B, Carlson E, Clulow S, Cunningham S, Dunn L, Evans L, Ferronato B, Fletcher DB, Georges A, Gilpin A-M, Hall MA, Hawkins B, Hoeffer AM, Howland B, Lettoof DC, Lintermans M, Littlefair M, Latty T, Lavery TH, Lucas Z, Madani G, Maute K, Milner RNC, Nordberg EJ, O’Loughlin T, O’Reilly W, O’Shea M, Rayner L, Ritchie EG, Robinson NM, Sarre SD, Saunders ME, Scheele BC, Seddon J, Speirs R, Spencer R, Stirnemann I, Watson DM, Wilson BA, Unmack PJ, Zhao Y, Snape MA (2025) Quantifying taxon-specific habitat connectivity requirements of urban wildlife using structured expert judgement. Biological Conservation PDF DOI
Applied ecology and conservation research group 