Linking Plant Diversity and Urban Uses at the City-Block Scale to Inform Urban Planning

Muriel Deparis (), Nicolas Legay, Arthur Castellanos, Chloé Duque, Ulysse Guilloteau, Francis Isselin-Nondedeu and Sébastien Bonthoux
Additional contact information
Muriel Deparis: UMR 7324 CNRS CITERES, 33 Allée Ferdinand de Lesseps, 37200 Tours, France
Nicolas Legay: UMR 7324 CNRS CITERES, 33 Allée Ferdinand de Lesseps, 37200 Tours, France
Arthur Castellanos: UMR 7324 CNRS CITERES, 33 Allée Ferdinand de Lesseps, 37200 Tours, France
Chloé Duque: UMR 7324 CNRS CITERES, 33 Allée Ferdinand de Lesseps, 37200 Tours, France
Ulysse Guilloteau: UMR 7324 CNRS CITERES, 33 Allée Ferdinand de Lesseps, 37200 Tours, France
Francis Isselin-Nondedeu: UMR 7324 CNRS CITERES, 33 Allée Ferdinand de Lesseps, 37200 Tours, France
Sébastien Bonthoux: UMR 7324 CNRS CITERES, 33 Allée Ferdinand de Lesseps, 37200 Tours, France

Land, 2024, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-29

Abstract: A challenge for urban ecology is to reduce biotic homogenisation by promoting plant diversity from local to city scales. As ecological and social components constantly interact in cities, an urban landscape characterisation reflecting socio-spatial functioning seems essential. However, spatially explicit description of cities at a relevant scale for urban planning are uncommon in ecological studies. Here, we explored a new approach based on the city-block scale, common in urban geography and planning, to directly link urban uses and patterns of herbaceous plant communities. We characterised all city blocks of a medium-sized French city (Blois). We inventoried grassland and meadows in 129 city blocks (10% of the whole city) for seven public and private urban uses (collective housing, individual housing, industrial, public service, park, land reserve, and road verge). We measured alpha diversity, community composition, regional originality of urban uses, and beta diversity between them. Urban land reserved for future development and parks harbour unique community composition within the city. Collective and individual housings have the same average alpha diversity, but the variability in community composition was higher for individual housing blocks. School and industrial city blocks have important alpha diversity and regional originality. Road verges have the highest alpha diversity but low regional originality and many common urban and regional species. Large green spaces with original communities should be protected during urban densification. The verticalization of residential housing could be an efficient means of internal urban densification if the lowest level of management intensity is promoted to maintain diversified vegetation. Some little-studied uses (schools, industrial city blocks) present opportunities to impede urban homogenisation.

Keywords: gamma diversity; lawn; mowing; private garden; urbanisation; urban management; urban practitioners (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/14/1/3/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/14/1/3/ (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:14:y:2024:i:1:p:3-:d:1551572

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 ().