TY - JOUR
T1 - Methodology, assessment and application of biotope mapping for urban parks in China
T2 - A case study on Riverside Park, Yichang
AU - Zhao, Cong Cong
AU - Yang, Yu Qi
AU - Hu, Yuan Dong
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No.2572020BK04, No.2572017CA12).
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2022 Zhao, Yang and Hu.
PY - 2022/11/18
Y1 - 2022/11/18
N2 - China, like many other countries in the world, has declining biodiversity caused by urbanization. Urban parks are a patchwork of distinct biotopes and have significant conservation value for biodiversity. Biotope mapping is an essential tool for urban biodiversity conservation, ecological spatial planning and ecosystem management, however there are few studies on it in China. This study explores a practical scheme of biotope classification, assessment and application for urban parks. The classification scheme which integrated vegetation structure was updated to make it clearer and more appropriate for urban parks in factor selection and grade. To identify problems in the biotope, the assessment tool assessed biotope fragmentation and spontaneous vegetation diversity. The number of patches (NP), mean patch size (MPS) and fragmentation index (FI) were used to measure biotope fragmentation, and for species level the richness index and the Jaccard index were selected. These methods were applied to Riverside Park, Yichang as a case study site to verify the applicability and explore methods for biodiversity conservation and restoration based on biotope mapping. The results show that this classification scheme has the potential to become a standard system for urban parks in China, according to the advantages of recognition of human activities and other species, and easy learning. It is also shows that the evaluation method integrating fragmentation and diversity is feasible and reliable to identify the problems of biotope types, and practical strategies are developed according to the assessment results. Our findings provide guidance and reference for professionals on a new method to take urban biodiversity conservation and restoration from research to practice.
AB - China, like many other countries in the world, has declining biodiversity caused by urbanization. Urban parks are a patchwork of distinct biotopes and have significant conservation value for biodiversity. Biotope mapping is an essential tool for urban biodiversity conservation, ecological spatial planning and ecosystem management, however there are few studies on it in China. This study explores a practical scheme of biotope classification, assessment and application for urban parks. The classification scheme which integrated vegetation structure was updated to make it clearer and more appropriate for urban parks in factor selection and grade. To identify problems in the biotope, the assessment tool assessed biotope fragmentation and spontaneous vegetation diversity. The number of patches (NP), mean patch size (MPS) and fragmentation index (FI) were used to measure biotope fragmentation, and for species level the richness index and the Jaccard index were selected. These methods were applied to Riverside Park, Yichang as a case study site to verify the applicability and explore methods for biodiversity conservation and restoration based on biotope mapping. The results show that this classification scheme has the potential to become a standard system for urban parks in China, according to the advantages of recognition of human activities and other species, and easy learning. It is also shows that the evaluation method integrating fragmentation and diversity is feasible and reliable to identify the problems of biotope types, and practical strategies are developed according to the assessment results. Our findings provide guidance and reference for professionals on a new method to take urban biodiversity conservation and restoration from research to practice.
KW - biotope classification and assessment
KW - biotope mapping
KW - landscape architecture
KW - urban biodiversity
KW - urban park
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85143375311&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3389/fenvs.2022.1008362
DO - 10.3389/fenvs.2022.1008362
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85143375311
VL - 10
JO - Frontiers in Environmental Science
JF - Frontiers in Environmental Science
SN - 2296-665X
M1 - 1008362
ER -