Landscape planning and ecological preservation

courtesy : Landscape planning and ecological preservation

Introduction

Landscape fragmentation affects habitats and wildlife and causes loss of connectivity [7–9]. The detrimental effects of fragmentation can be avoided or minimised by the creation of new habitats and/or the protection of existing habitats by ensuring more connected habitat patches (or the networks of habitats/green and open spaces). Hence, the growing awareness of the need for connected habitats/green and open spaces was reflected in planning approaches such as greenbelts and linked park systems, greenways, ecological networks, green networks and green infrastructure (GI).

These approaches have their own planning aims and strategies, in particular in the early stages of their development. But they have become closer with regard to their common concerns and the underlying concept of landscape connectivity to identify their spatial configuration. In the context of this chapter, the theoretical and scientific background of different network approaches has been reviewed.

The scope of early landscape planning approaches to networks was limited by their foci, where the spatial planning of nature and human dimensions has been treated as separate sectors. However, nature conservation and landscape planning practices have started to evolve into more integrated and multidisciplinary approaches, which are centered on the concepts of sustainability and multifunctionality

A more recent planning approach is GI and it is thought to be able to ensure the multifunctionality of different land uses and provide sustainable benefits to nature, biodiversity and people from available land in and around urban environments. However, there is still need for a more robust decision-making structure and feasible planning approach as well as a measurable and traceable tool to planning GI in order to achieve these goals.

This chapter reviews and discusses the literature on landscape ecology applications in landscape planning with an emphasis on sustainability in urban environments. The chapter starts with urbanisation as an issue and explains how it leads to fragmentation and the loss of connectivity. After giving a brief overview of issues related to fragmentation, it moves on to the relationship between urbanisation and sustainability. Thereafter, it introduces different ways in which networks have been developed in ecology and planning to mitigate the adverse effects of fragmentation by enhancing landscape connectivity.

# Landscape planning and ecological preservation

# green infrastructure

Urbanisation and sustainability

The relationship between urbanisation and sustainability largely depends on their dynamic interactions and interdependencies with environmental, societal and economic processes . In urban areas, natural habitats and biodiversity have been subjected to intense human disturbances, and so urban environments and their surroundings have been the focus of conservation efforts . In conjunction with the increased concerns for the nature and biodiversity, sustainability has become a central issue in urban areas, as a response to the growing concern for the quality of the natural environment as well as the social and economic life in the early nineteenth century

The concept of sustainable development is formally defined for the first time in the Brundtland Report (Our Common Future) as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” . The concept of sustainable development seeks to achieve a dynamic and long-term balance between socioeconomic (e.g., well-being and equity of people) and environmental systems (e.g., protection and maintenance of the nature and biodiversity) . As suggested by Selman , the landscape itself provides an arena in which this balance might be provided and maintained.

With regard to sustainability in landscapes, it is claimed that a generally accepted definition of landscape sustainability is lacking or it is generally defined in different contexts . While some researchers used the Brundtland Report as the source of definition with an emphasis on the maintenance of ecological integrity and basic human needs , some highlighted the importance of natural capital and ecosystem services , while others considered the localisation and self-regenerative capacity as the essential property of sustainability in landscapes . However, in broad terms, landscape sustainability is defined as “the capacity of a landscape to consistently provide long-term, landscape-specific ecosystem services essential for maintaining and improving human wellbeing in a regional context and despite environmental and sociocultural changes”.

#urbanisation and sustainability

# natural environment

#ISBC

Landscape planning and ecological preservation

Landscape planning and ecological preservation