IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envirb/v32y2005i5p763-776.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Predicting Ecological Connectivity in Urbanizing Landscapes

Author

Listed:
  • Britta G Bierwagen

    (Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA)

Abstract

Nearly half the world's population lives in urban centers, and these areas are increasingly important components of regional and global land cover. However, their ecological attributes are often overlooked, despite the presence of species, ecosystem services, and risks associated with the spread of pests or threatening processes such as fire. Movement and dispersal of organisms contribute to species persistence in urban landscapes; however, landscape patterns that promote ecological connectivity may also facilitate the spread of undesirable organisms or processes. I investigate how urban form can be used to predict ecological connectivity and assist in prioritizing urban landscapes for conservation activities and risk management. I examine the value of qualitative and quantitative descriptions of urban morphology as predictors of ecological connectivity by comparing sixty-six cities in the USA. Results show that qualitative categories are not adequate for describing ecological connectivity; multivariate descriptions are much better predictors, with urban area, number of urban patches, urban patch extent, level of aggregation, and perimeter area fractal dimension composing the significant synthetic variables. The dominance of area as a differentiating variable led to the development of a new urban connectivity index using a combination of urban area and state population size. This metric, based on readily available aspatial data, explains 78% of variation in ecological connectivity. These results provide a simple but novel tool for beginning to understand the role of urban morphology in promoting desirable environmental outcomes and managing environmental risks in urbanizing landscapes.

Suggested Citation

  • Britta G Bierwagen, 2005. "Predicting Ecological Connectivity in Urbanizing Landscapes," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 32(5), pages 763-776, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:envirb:v:32:y:2005:i:5:p:763-776
    DOI: 10.1068/b31134
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/b31134
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1068/b31134?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. T V Mesev & P A Longley & M Batty & Y Xie, 1995. "Morphology from Imagery: Detecting and Measuring the Density of Urban Land Use," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 27(5), pages 759-780, May.
    2. Danielle Snellen & Aloys Borgers & Harry Timmermans, 2002. "Urban Form, Road Network Type, and Mode Choice for Frequently Conducted Activities: A Multilevel Analysis Using Quasi-Experimental Design Data," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 34(7), pages 1207-1220, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Holt, Alison R. & Mears, Meghann & Maltby, Lorraine & Warren, Philip, 2015. "Understanding spatial patterns in the production of multiple urban ecosystem services," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 16(C), pages 33-46.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. M Batty & Y Xie, 1996. "Preliminary Evidence for a Theory of the Fractal City," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 28(10), pages 1745-1762, October.
    2. Pengfei Ban & Wei Zhan & Qifeng Yuan & Xiaojian Li, 2021. "Delineating the Urban Areas of a Cross-Boundary City with Open-Access Data: Guangzhou–Foshan, South China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-17, March.
    3. Anthony Gar-On Yeh & Xia Li, 2002. "A Cellular Automata Model to Simulate Development Density for Urban Planning," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 29(3), pages 431-450, June.
    4. Andrea CIRILLI & Paolo VENERI, 2010. "Spatial Structure and CO2 Emissions Due to Commuting: an Analysis on Italian Urban Areas," Working Papers 353, Universita' Politecnica delle Marche (I), Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali.
    5. Yılmaz, Merve & Terzi, Fatih, 2021. "Measuring the patterns of urban spatial growth of coastal cities in developing countries by geospatial metrics," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    6. Elldér, Erik, 2014. "Residential location and daily travel distances: the influence of trip purpose," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 121-130.
    7. Edmund J Zolnik, 2011. "The Effects of Sprawl on Private-Vehicle Commuting Distances and Times," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 38(6), pages 1071-1084, December.
    8. Tae-Hyoung Gim, 2012. "A meta-analysis of the relationship between density and travel behavior," Transportation, Springer, vol. 39(3), pages 491-519, May.
    9. Kiril Stanilov, 2002. "Postwar Trends, Land-Cover Changes, and Patterns of Suburban Development: The Case of Greater Seattle," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 29(2), pages 173-195, April.
    10. Pinjari, Abdul Rawoof & Bhat, Chandra R. & Hensher, David A., 2009. "Residential self-selection effects in an activity time-use behavior model," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 43(7), pages 729-748, August.
    11. Martin Herold & Joseph Scepan & Keith C Clarke, 2002. "The Use of Remote Sensing and Landscape Metrics to Describe Structures and Changes in Urban Land Uses," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 34(8), pages 1443-1458, August.
    12. Kang, Chaogui & Ma, Xiujun & Tong, Daoqin & Liu, Yu, 2012. "Intra-urban human mobility patterns: An urban morphology perspective," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 391(4), pages 1702-1717.
    13. Fulong Wu & David Martin, 2002. "Urban Expansion Simulation of Southeast England Using Population Surface Modelling and Cellular Automata," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 34(10), pages 1855-1876, October.
    14. Yanchun Yi & Sisi Ma & Weijun Guan & Ke Li, 2017. "An Empirical Study on the Relationship between Urban Spatial Form and CO 2 in Chinese Cities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-12, April.
    15. Jinhyun Hong & Qing Shen & Lei Zhang, 2014. "How do built-environment factors affect travel behavior? A spatial analysis at different geographic scales," Transportation, Springer, vol. 41(3), pages 419-440, May.
    16. Woods, Lee & Ferguson, Neil S., 2014. "The influence of urban form on car travel following residential relocation: a current and retrospective study in Scottish urban areas," The Journal of Transport and Land Use, Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, vol. 7(1), pages 95-104.
    17. Kees Maat & Bert van Wee & Dominic Stead, 2005. "Land Use and Travel Behaviour: Expected Effects from the Perspective of Utility Theory and Activity-Based Theories," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 32(1), pages 33-46, February.
    18. Zolnik, Edmund J., 2012. "The costs of sprawl for private-vehicle commuters," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 23-30.
    19. Eric J Heikkila & Ti-Yan Shen & Kai-Zhong Yang, 2003. "Fuzzy Urban Sets: Theory and Application to Desakota Regions in China," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 30(2), pages 239-254, April.
    20. Stuart L Barr & Michael J Barnsley & Alan Steel, 2004. "On the Separability of Urban Land-Use Categories in Fine Spatial Scale Land-Cover Data Using Structural Pattern Recognition," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 31(3), pages 397-418, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envirb:v:32:y:2005:i:5:p:763-776. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.