Improving Urban Habitat Connectivity for Native Birds: Using Least-Cost Path Analyses to Design Urban Green Infrastructure Networks

Maggie MacKinnon (), Maibritt Pedersen Zari and Daniel K. Brown
Additional contact information
Maggie MacKinnon: Wellington School of Architecture, Faculty of Architecture and Design Innovation, Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington 6011, New Zealand
Maibritt Pedersen Zari: School of Future Environments, Faculty of Design and Creative Technologies, Te Wananga Aronui o Tamaki Makau Rau Auckland University of Technology, Auckland 1010, New Zealand
Daniel K. Brown: Wellington School of Architecture, Faculty of Architecture and Design Innovation, Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington 6011, New Zealand

Land, 2023, vol. 12, issue 7, 1-21

Abstract: Habitat loss and fragmentation are primary threats to biodiversity in urban areas. Least-cost path analyses are commonly used in ecology to identify and protect wildlife corridors and stepping-stone habitats that minimise the difficulty and risk for species dispersing across human-modified landscapes. However, they are rarely considered or used in the design of urban green infrastructure networks, particularly those that include building-integrated vegetation, such as green walls and green roofs. This study uses Linkage Mapper, an ArcGIS toolbox, to identify the least-cost paths for four native keystone birds (kererū, tūī, korimako, and hihi) in Wellington, New Zealand, to design a network of green roof corridors that ease native bird dispersal. The results identified 27 least-cost paths across the central city that connect existing native forest habitats. Creating 0.7 km 2 of green roof corridors along these least-cost paths reduced cost-weighted distances by 8.5–9.3% for the kererū, tūī, and korimako, but there was only a 4.3% reduction for the hihi (a small forest bird). In urban areas with little ground-level space for green infrastructure, this study demonstrates how least-cost path analyses can inform the design of building-integrated vegetation networks and quantify their impacts on corridor quality for target species in cities.

Keywords: urban green infrastructure; habitat connectivity; native birds; least-cost paths; geographic information systems; green roofs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/12/7/1456/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/12/7/1456/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:12:y:2023:i:7:p:1456-:d:1199371

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

More articles in Land from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().