Dryad
Published January 18, 2022 | Version v1
Dataset Open

Data from: Predicting habitat suitability and connectivity for management and conservation of urban wildlife: A real-time web application for grassland water voles

Authors/Creators

  • 1. University of Glasgow
  • 2. Glasgow City Council
  • 3. Seven Lochs Project*
  • 4. NatureScot*

Description

  1. Natural habitats in urban areas provide benefits for both humans and biodiversity. However, to achieve biodiversity gains we require new techniques to determine habitat suitability and ecological connectivity that will inform urban planning and development.
  2. Using an example of an urban population of water voles (Arvicola amphibius) we developed a habitat suitability model and a resistance-surface-based model of landscape connectivity to identify potential connectivity between areas of suitable habitat. We then updated the environmental variables according to new urban development plans and used our models to generate spatially explicit predictions of both habitat suitability and connectivity.
  3. To make models accessible to urban and conservation planners we developed an interactive mapping tool that provided users with a graphical user interface (GUI) to inform conservation planning for this species.
  4. The model found that habitat suitability for water voles was related to distance from key environmental variables, such as built-up areas and urban green spaces, while the connectivity model identified important corridors connecting areas of potential distribution for this species.
  5. Future development plans altered the potential spatial distribution of the water vole population, reducing the extent of suitable habitat in some core areas. The interactive mapping tool made available suitable habitat and connectivity maps for conservation managers to assess new planning applications and for the development of a conservation action plan for water voles.
  6. Synthesis and applications: We believe this approach provides a framework for future development of nature conservation tools that can be used by planners to inform ecological decision making, increase biodiversity and reduce human-wildlife conflict in urban environments.

Notes

This dataset contains the R script for the interactive software (which can be found at: https://boydorr.gla.ac.uk/lucanelli/watervole/).

  • ENV.Rdata: R workspace. Make sure you load it before running the Shiny app.
  • app.R: R code of the Shiny app
  • test_files.zip: folder with shapefiles of the proposed development, to test the app.
  • watervole_guide_1.1.docx: instructions on how to use the app.

Any question, please contact me: luca.nelli@glasgow.ac.uk

Files

README_test_files.txt

Files (68.8 kB)

Name Size Download all
md5:b81aeb60f4364dea9b4dc7c8fab8dfa6
289 Bytes Preview Download
md5:cd5180147d72436afc394796df37914c
68.5 kB Preview Download

Additional details

Related works

Is derived from
10.5281/zenodo.5861110 (DOI)