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Spatial Rule-Based Assessment of Habitat Potential to Predict Impact of Land Use Changes on Biodiversity at Municipal Scale

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Abstract

In human dominated landscapes, ecosystems are under increasing pressures caused by urbanization and infrastructure development. In Alpine valleys remnant natural areas are increasingly affected by habitat fragmentation and loss. In these contexts, there is a growing risk of local extinction for wildlife populations; hence assessing the consequences on biodiversity of proposed land use changes is extremely important. The article presents a methodology to assess the impacts of land use changes on target species at a local scale. The approach relies on the application of ecological profiles of target species for habitat potential (HP) assessment, using high resolution GIS-data within a multiple level framework. The HP, in this framework, is based on a species-specific assessment of the suitability of a site, as well of surrounding areas. This assessment is performed through spatial rules, structured as sets of queries on landscape objects. We show that by considering spatial dependencies in habitat assessment it is possible to perform better quantification of impacts of local-level land use changes on habitats.

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Acknowledgments

Bernardino Romano (University of L’Aquila), Astrid van Teeffelen and Rogier Pouwels (ALTERRA Institute, Wageningen), Chiara Deflorian and Paolo Pedrini (Museo Tridentino Scienze Naturali, Trento) provided valuable suggestions. Heidi Hoffer (FEM-IASMA) reviewed the text. Two anonymous reviewers contributed to improve the quality of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Agro-Ecosystems Sustainability and Bioresources, IASMA Research and Innovation Centre, Fondazione Edmund Mach, Via E. Mach, 1 S. Michele all’Adige, Trento, 38060, Italy

    Rocco Scolozzi

  2. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Trento, Trento, Italy

    Davide Geneletti

  3. Center for International Development, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Davide Geneletti

Authors
  1. Rocco Scolozzi
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  2. Davide Geneletti
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Correspondence to Rocco Scolozzi.

Appendix 1

Appendix 1

Sets of Classification Rules for the Six Target Species

We report the original names of the third level EUNIS categories, in some cases we only report the code for the second level (e,g., E1 instead of E1.1) or the first level (e.g., J instead of J1, or J1.1) meaning all the relative sub-categories are included.

See Tables 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Table 5 Classification rules for Rana synlklepton esculenta
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Table 6 Classification rules for Calopteryx virgo
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Table 7 Classification rules for Lanius collurio
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Table 8 Classification rules for Erinacaeus europaeus
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Table 9 Classification rules for Sitta europaea
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Table 10 Classification rules for Muscardinus avellanarius
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Scolozzi, R., Geneletti, D. Spatial Rule-Based Assessment of Habitat Potential to Predict Impact of Land Use Changes on Biodiversity at Municipal Scale. Environmental Management 47, 368–383 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-011-9613-8

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