Assessing the Impact of Urban Expansion on Surrounding Forested Landscape Connectivity across Space and Time

Zhouqiao Ren, Jianhua He and Qiaobing Yue
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Zhouqiao Ren: Institute of Digital Agriculture, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou 310021, China
Jianhua He: School of Resource and Environmental Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430079, China
Qiaobing Yue: School of Resource and Environmental Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430079, China

Land, 2021, vol. 10, issue 4, 1-14

Abstract: Landscape connectivity is important for all organisms as it directly affects population dynamics. Yet, rapid urbanization has caused serious landscape fragmentation, which is the primary contributor of species extinctions worldwide. Previous studies have mostly used spatial snap-shots to evaluate the impact of urban expansion on landscape connectivity. However, the interactions among habitats over time in dynamic landscapes have been largely ignored. Here, we demonstrated that overlooking temporal connectivity can lead to the overestimation of the impact of urban expansion. How much greater the overestimation is depends on the amount of net habitat loss. Moreover, we showed that landscape connectivity may have a delayed response to urban expansion. Our analysis shifts the way to understand the ecological consequences of urban expansion. Our framework can guide sustainable urban development and can be inspiring to conservation practices under other contexts (e.g., climate change).

Keywords: land-use change; fragmentation; urban development strategy; spatio-temporal connectivity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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