Landscape Ecology

The system of environmentally valuable areas on a local, regional, national and international scale should be considered in terms of an ecological network. No area, even the smallest one with environmental value, regardless of whether it is under protection or not, can function properly without connection with other environmentally valuable areas (Hilty et al. 2020). That is why it is so important to monitor changes in land use/land cover and use not only within the protected areas themselves but also in their close surroundings. Connectivity between all valuable areas is essential to maintain the viability of species, communities and ecosystems, especially under the influence and impact of climate change (Hilty et al. 2020).

One of the latest evaluation of European Environment Agency (EEA 2020) shows Europe's nature in serious, continuing decline. Landscape or habitat fragmentation is the result of a gradual reduction of the natural-environment surface as well as its progressive isolation (e.g. Jaeger et al. 2011; Hilty et al. 2020) and it is a a process deriving from both natural or anthropogenic forces (e.g. Lisiak-Zielińska et al. 2018; Cai et al. 2020). On the other hand, connectivity is a vital element of landscape structure and it plays an important role in ecological dynamics within and between habitats (Hilty et al. 2020).

The issue of the fragmentation of natural habitats is increasingly at the core of the scientific debate. As it has been recognised at a European level, in order to allow different species to remain in good functional status, a network of green infrastructures should be implemented. The ecological connectivity refers to the way habitats are physically connected to each other and how easy it is for species to move in. Good ecological connectivity is fundamental to the effective conservation of biodiversity considering that most species and ecological functions provided by ecosystems (ecosystem services) require a much wider space than that available within the boundaries of a single protected area.

The construction of a variety of urban areas and of the necessary transport and mobility infrastructures results in many barriers at ecological system. These artificial buildings act as interpositions and interrupt the continuity originally observed in natural wide areas. Landscape fragmentation (LF) is the phenomenon, according to which the initial very large parts of habitat (also called patches) are progressively cut and divided in even smaller and more isolated fragments (Fichera et al., 2015). LF has many shortcomings, such as reduced animal mobility and vegetal seed dispersal activity, and should be counteracted to achieve healthier landscapes in contemporary peri-urban settlements. A major strategy to diminish LF is the design and implementation of structures able to reconnect the patches in larger and more robust ensembles.

Ecological networks (ENs), i.e. compounds of a set of patches interconnected through a set of corridors, are major strategies for counteracting landscape fragmentation in stressed urban, peri-urban and rural domains. They are adopted in many cases worldwide and their success or difficult rooting can be used as a living indicator of the inclination of human settlements to favour the development of green systems (Andrea de Montis et al., 2019).

For my short lecture series I would like to invite three experts in the field of landscape ecology, who have contributed and are still contributing to the development of landscape ecology, especially in the subject of landscape fragmentation.

Professor Ulrich Walz currently works at the Faculty of Agriculture, Environment and Chemistry, University of Applied Sciences in Dresden. Professor Walz received  his habilitation degree at University of Rostock. Since 2015 he is a chair of Landscape Ecology at Dresden University of Applied Sciences. In 2014, he completed a scientific internship at  the Concordia University, in Montreal (Canada). Since 1995 he is a project manager at the Leibniz-Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development. His personal achievements are: 68 documents, 1471 citations and h-index – 15 (source: Scopus, 08.05.2022)

Professor Jochen Jaeger currently works at the Department of Geography, Planning and Environment at Concordia University in Montreal (Canada). Dr. Jaeger received his PhD from the Department of Environmental Sciences at the ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) in 2000. He held a position at the Centre of Technology Assessment in Baden-Württemberg in Stuttgart, Germany, and lectured at the University of Stuttgart. In 2001, he went to Canada as a postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Lenore Fahrig in her Landscape Ecology Laboratory at Carleton University, Ottawa, funded by the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina. From 2003 to 2007 he was back in Zurich at the ETH as a research associate and was funded by the German Research Foundation DFG, the Swiss National Science Foundation SNF, the Swiss Federal Roads Authority, and the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment. His two last larger projects in Zurich were on the degree of landscape fragmentation and the degree of urban sprawl in Switzerland as indicators for the Swiss Monitoring System of Sustainable Development (MONET). He joined Concordia University in July 2007. In October 2010, he received the Dean's 2009-2010 New Scholar Award for outstanding achievement by a tenure-track faculty member. His research team received the IENE Project Award 2011 for their project "Landscape Fragmentation in Europe" from the Infra Eco Network Europe in September 2011. His research is in environmental science, mostly in the fields of landscape ecology, road ecology, environmental impact assessment, environmental indicators, ecological modelling, urban sprawl, and trans-disciplinary research concepts. He is currently working on four major research projects: (1) Earth Observation in support of the City Biodiversity Index (EO4CBI), (2) Uncertainty disclosure and communication in Canadian environmental impact assessment, (3) Monitoring the use and effectiveness of wildlife passages, existing crossing structures, and fences, (4) Urban sprawl in Europe and in Canada, and various smaller projects. His personal achievements are: 75 documents, 3910 citations and h-index – 25 (source: Scopus, 08.05.2022)

Professor Andrea de Montis works at the University o Sassari in Italy, at the Department of Agriculture. He got a doctoral degree (equivalent to Ph.D. degree) in Urban planning at University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Italy (2001) and a Master of Science Degree in Economic Policy and Planning at Northeastern University, Boston, USA (1996). He has so far developed research at the University of Cagliari, Sassari, Rome, Molise, Basilicata, Italy, Northeastern University, USA, Free University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, taking active part of a variety of research project at the local, national and international level on these major fields: evaluation and planning, environmental and urban planning, regional planning, recovery planning, regional development and decision and planning support systems, and environmental modeling for planning. He currently is the principal investigator of a project about Ecological networks and landscape planning: case studies in Sardinia (Fondazione Banco di Sardegna) and is a member of the scientific committee of a research collaboration agreement with the Region of Sardinia concerning the Strategy for the adaptation to climate change. He has authored many papers in leading journals, for example: Land Use Policy, Journal of Enviornmental Management. His personal achievements are: 67 documents, 989 citations and h-index – 17 (source: Scopus, 08.05.2022)

References:

Cai A., Wang J., MacLachlan I., Zhu L. 2020. Modeling the trade-offs between urban development and ecological process based on landscape multi-functionality and regional ecological network. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 63(11), 2357-2379.

De Montis A., Ganciu, A., Cabras M., Bardi A., Mulas M. 2019. Comparative ecological network analysis: An application to Italy. Land Use Policy 81:714-724

European Environment Agency (EEA). 2020.  Technical report No 10/2020. State of nature in the EU. Results from reporting under the nature directives 2013–2018. Luxembourg.  pp. 142.

Fichera C.R., Laudari L. and Modica G. 2015). Application, validation and comparison in different geographical contexts of an integrated model for the design of ecological networks. Journal of Agricultural Engineering, 46(2), 52–61

Hilty J., Worboys G.L., Keeley A., Woodley S., Lausche B., Locke H., Carr M., Pulsford I., Pittock J., White J.W., Theobald D.M., Levine J., Reuling M., Watson J.E.M., Ament R., Tabor G.M. 2020. Guidelines for conserving connectivity through ecological networks and corridors. Best Practice Protected Area Guidelines Series No. 30. Gland, Switzerland. IUCN, pp 140.

Jaeger J.A.G., Soukup T., Madriñán L.F., Schwick C., Kienast F. 2011. Landscape fragmentation in Europe. Joint EEA-FOEN report. EEA Report No. 2/2011. European Environment Agency. Copenhagen. Swiss Federal Office for the Environment. Bern.

Lisiak-Zielińska M., Borowiak K., Kanclerz J., Adamska A., Szymańczyk J. 2018. Effect of linear investment of nature and landscape – a case study. Journal of Environmental Engineering and Landscape Management 26(2), 158-165.