A socio-ecological perspective of urban green networks: the Stockholm case

Abstract

Landscape fragmentation threatens habitats, biodiversity and other ecosystem services. In tackling this threat, the dynamic processes of social-ecological systems should be recognised and understood. Although network analysis based on graph theory has been recognised as an efficient way of spatially understanding landscape or habitat connectivity, only few studies have offered specific approaches or suggestions for integrating detailed social-ecological values into geographical distributions. As a contribution to bridging this gap, this paper introduces a social-ecological network model for the issue of landscape or habitat fragmentation applied to the case of Stockholm, Sweden. Graph theory was used in combination with sociotope and biotope maps for simple visualisation of network situations in two-dimensional maps. The European crested tit (Lophophanes cristatus), European common toad (Bufo bufo) and human beings were selected as indicator species, based on a landscape ecology analysis in Stockholm Municipality in 2009. Slope, land use and human disturbance maps were assessed in order to decide cost values of travelling from node to node. Lease-cost-path accumulation was used to create ideal reference maps of green networks. Three separate maps were then developed for suggesting efficient routes for three indicators in city scale that mainly connect from the Royal National City Park to the other parts of the city. The model in Hjorthagen neighbourhood to highlight two practical paths that link this fragmented community to its neighbouring park areas. Findings make it possible to address two scales of network improvement strategies, namely first for the city-scale green network that connects geographical habitats (nodes) and the regional green wedges of the city, and the second that of neighbourhood links between habitats in detailed layers of green networks. Strategic improvement potentials are presented based on ideal reference maps of green networks correspondingly.

Contribution of Connectivity Assessments to Green Infrastructure (GI)

“…Connectivity assessments represent a modeling framework well suited to assess the role of landscape structure in contributing to movement success of organisms and in realizing the goals of GI [72]. Connectivity studies have been applied to a broad range of species and environments ranging from e.g., conservation for individual species [73][74][75], including aquatic invertebrates [76], to multi-species corridors [50,57,77] to socio-ecological studies in the context of GI [78].…”

Applying a socio-ecological green network framework to Xi’an City, China

“…Crossing different land use/cover, such as green spaces, roads, buildings, etc., requires varied resistance values (Sitzia et al 2014;Braaker et al 2017). Similar characters are landscape elevation (DEM, Digital Elevation Model), human disturbance (assuming that human density leads directly to anthropogenic impedance, it was employed here as a human disturbance indicator) (Adriaensen et al 2003;Teng et al 2011;Xiu et al 2017) and green space distance (Euclidean distance from the green space under analysis to other green spaces, with a shorter distance giving a higher possibility of connecting and lower cost of travelling) (not included in initial test in Stockholm) (Teng et al 2011).…”

“…A 1-10 range was applied for human recreation, 1-1000 for bird movement and 1-10,000 for the theoretical cost of toad movement to highlight and distinguish the degree of impedance to different species. Amphibians normally need greater efforts to cross different landscapes than the other two groups, while birds' migration may be more easily hindered by human activities (Teng et al 2011;Xiu et al 2017). Therefore, the impedance degree was determined as toad > bird > human.…”

“…This framework integrates green and blue spaces planning into landscape connectivity analysis linking species movement and human recreational access. It develops networking plans at city and neighbourhood scales, dealing with loss of green spaces in a time of city densification (Xiu et al 2017). However, the Stockholm testing indicated a need for further investigations and tests of the framework in more locations, for instance not only in European cities but also in cities such as in Chinese cities that face rapid development and major challenges to sustainable planning.…”

Urban Systems: A Socio-Ecological System Perspective

“…90 It has been also used as case study in a research using a social-ecological network model to address landscape and habitat fragmentation. 91 The socio-ecological urban trajectories of the industrial eras have been explored by 92 in Paris, France.…”