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Managing Urban Plant Invasions: a Multi-Criteria Prioritization Approach

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A Correction to this article was published on 30 August 2018

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Abstract

Alien plant invasions in urban areas can have considerable impact on biodiversity and ecosystem services (ES). Managing urban plant invasions is particularly challenging given the complex interactions between ecological, economic and social elements that exist in the urban milieu. Strategic landscape-scale insights are crucial for guiding management, as are tactical site-scale perspectives to plan and coordinate control efforts on the ground. Integrating these requirements to enhance management efficiency is a major challenge. Decision-support models have considerable potential for guiding and informing management strategies when problems are complex. This study uses multi-criteria decision tools to develop a prioritization framework for managing invasive alien plants (IAPs) in urban areas at landscape and local scales. We used the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP; a multi-criteria decision support model) to develop and rank criteria for prioritising IAP management in the City of Cape Town (CoCT), South Africa. Located within a global biodiversity hotspot, Cape Town has a long history of alien plant introductions and a complex socio-political make-up, creating a useful system to explore the challenges associated with managing urban plant invasions. To guide the prioritization of areas for IAP management across the CoCT, a stakeholder workshop was held to identify a goal and criteria for consideration, and to assess the relative importance given to each criterion in IAP management. Workshop attendees were drawn from multiple disciplines involved with different aspects of IAP research and management: government departments, scientists and researchers, and managers with a diverse set of skills and interests. We selected spatial datasets and applied our multi-criteria decision analysis in a Geographic Information System (GIS) to develop a landscape-scale prioritization map. To address issues relevant in an urban setting, we also modified an existing IAP management framework to develop a tactical (site-level) prioritization scheme for guiding on-the-ground control operations. High-priority sites for IAP management were identified at landscape- and local scales across the study area. Factors related to safety and security emerged as pivotal features for setting spatially-explicit priorities for management. The approach applied in this study can be useful for managers in all urban settings to guide the selection and prioritization of areas for IAP management.

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  • 30 August 2018

    The original version of the article unfortunately contained an error with the figure captions. The appropriate captions for Fig. 3–6 are published accordingly. The original article has been corrected.

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Acknowledgements

Invited stakeholders for the prioritisation workshop were: David Le Maitre (CSIR), Brian van Wilgen (Centre for Invasion Biology), Nicola van Wilgen (SANParks), Greg Forsyth (CSIR), Patricia Holmes (City of Cape Town), Luca Afonso (Centre for Invasion Biology), Chandre Rhoda (City of Cape Town), Chad Cheney (SANParks), Karen Esler (Centre for Invasion Biology) and Leighan Mossop (City of Cape Town). Funding for this work was provided by the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence for Invasion Biology and the Working for Water Programme through their collaborative research project on “Integrated Management of invasive alien species in South Africa” and the National Research Foundation (grant 85417 to DMR). We thank the City of Cape Town (City Maps and Invasive Species Unit) and SANBI (BGIS) for access to spatial data.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Invasion Biology, Department of Botany and Zoology, Stellenbosch University, Private Bag X1, Matieland, 7602, South Africa

    Luke J. Potgieter, Mirijam Gaertner, Ulrike M. Irlich & David M. Richardson

  2. Nürtingen-Geislingen University of Applied Sciences (HFWU), Schelmenwasen 4-8, Nürtingen, 72622, Germany

    Mirijam Gaertner

  3. Invasive Species Unit, Environmental Resource Management Department, City of Cape Town, Westlake Conservation Office, Cape Town, South Africa

    Ulrike M. Irlich, Louise Stafford & Hannah Vogt

  4. Natural Resources and Environment CSIR, P.O. Box 320, Stellenbosch, 7599, South Africa

    Patrick J. O’Farrell

  5. Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa

    Patrick J. O’Farrell

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  1. Luke J. Potgieter
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  2. Mirijam Gaertner
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  3. Ulrike M. Irlich
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  4. Patrick J. O’Farrell
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Correspondence to Luke J. Potgieter.

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The original version of this article was revised: The appropriate captions for Figs. 3–6 have been corrected.

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Potgieter, L.J., Gaertner, M., Irlich, U.M. et al. Managing Urban Plant Invasions: a Multi-Criteria Prioritization Approach. Environmental Management 62, 1168–1185 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-018-1088-4

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