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Systematic landscape restoration in the rural–urban fringe: meeting conservation planning and policy goals

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Abstract

Many landscapes that straddle the rural/urban divide suffer from low levels of species diversity following extensive clearing and fragmentation of native vegetation communities and conversion of land to agriculture. Further pressures are placed on remnant vegetation by encroaching urban expansion. These landscapes now exhibit a mosaic of small, patchy vegetation remnants that are under considerable pressure from housing and light-industrial development. Furthermore, agriculture in these landscapes tends to be of high economic value from uses such as intensive horticulture. Concerted and well-planned efforts are needed to balance the many conflicts of interest and competing demands for land with the need to restore landscapes for the protection of biodiversity. There has been a recent move in Australia toward regional biodiversity planning and goal setting, however specific detail on how to plan for achieving targets in complex landscapes is lacking. This paper applies a systematic landscape restoration model to a mixed-use, peri-urban landscape on the northern fringes of Adelaide, South Australia. The region contains fragments of remnant vegetation amongst a mosaic of high-value horticulture, light industry and urban development. Models produce maximally efficient solutions that meet comprehensive, adequate and representative conservation targets. Further constraints are added to the model to take into account the value of agricultural output, the biodiversity value of remnants, and property size and tenure. The effects on solution efficiencies as the number of constraints increase are investigated. This paper demonstrates the flexibility found in applying a systematic landscape restoration methodology. The process we present can be transferred to any rural–urban fringe region.

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Acknowledgements

This research was conducted with the support of an Australian Research Council Discovery grant DP0343036. We thank Ross Oke, Matt Turner, Ben Moulton and Darcy Peters at UFBP, and Todd Berkinshaw at Greening Australia for kind assistance with data supply and general support. Thank you to Kris Rothley for reviewing an earlier version of the manuscript. We thank an anonymous reviewer for improving the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Policy and Economic Research Unit, CSIRO Land and Water, PMB2, Glen Osmond, SA, 5064, Australia

    Neville D. Crossman & Brett A. Bryan

  2. School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Adelaide, Waite Campus, PMB1, Glen Osmond, SA, 5064, Australia

    Neville D. Crossman & Bertram Ostendorf

  3. South Australian Urban Forest Biodiversity Program, 328 Shepherds Hill Rd, Blackwood, SA, 5051, Australia

    Sally Collins

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  1. Neville D. Crossman
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  2. Brett A. Bryan
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Correspondence to Neville D. Crossman.

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Crossman, N.D., Bryan, B.A., Ostendorf, B. et al. Systematic landscape restoration in the rural–urban fringe: meeting conservation planning and policy goals. Biodivers Conserv 16, 3781–3802 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-007-9180-8

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