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LiDAR-derived three-dimensional ecological connectivity mapping for urban bird species

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Abstract

Context

Although many studies have considered urban structure when investigating urban ecological networks, few have considered the three-dimensional (3D) structure of buildings as well as urban green spaces. Airborne LiDAR datasets provide an opportunity to quantify 3D structure and evaluate 3D metrics in connectivity mapping.

Objectives

We examined an urban ecological network using the 3D structure of both green spaces and buildings.

Methods

Using breeding-season bird species observations and airborne LiDAR data collected, we assessed the influence of 3D structural variables on species diversity. We used correlation analyses to determine if vertical distribution, volume, area, and height of both buildings and vegetation were related to bird species diversity. Then we conducted circuit theory-based current flow betweenness centrality (CFBC) analysis using the LiDAR-derived structural variables.

Results

We found that the volumes of buildings and 8–10 m vegetation heights were both highly correlated with species richness per unit area. There were significant differences between 2D and 3D connectivity analysis using LiDAR-derived variables among urban forest patches, boulevards, and apartment complexes. Within urban forest patches and parks, 3D CFBC represented canopy structural characteristics well, by showing high variance in spatial distributions.

Conclusions

The 3D CFBC results indicated that adjacent high-rise buildings, dense apartment complexes, and densely urbanized areas were isolated, as characterized by low centrality values, but that vegetation planted in open spaces between buildings could improve connectivity by linking isolated areas to core areas. Our research highlights the importance of considering 3D structure in planning and managing urban ecological connectivity.

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Acknowledgments

This work was conducted with the support of the Korea Environment Industry & Technology Institute (KEITI) through its Urban Ecological Health Promotion Technology Development Project, and funded by the Korea Ministry of Environment (MOE) (2020002770002) and by the BK21 Plus Project in 2019 (Seoul National University Interdisciplinary Program in Landscape Architecture, Global leadership program towards innovative green infrastructure).

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Correspondence to Youngkeun Song.

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Appendix

Appendix

See Tables 3 and 4.

Table 3 Land-use informationa of the study site
Table 4 Observed bird species at each park

Shortest path betweenness centrality

The best single pathways derived from the 2D and 3D SPBCs are shown in Fig. 14. The results of both 2D and 3D SPBCs indicated that core pathways (> 0.5 SD) followed boulevards (roads with widths ≥ 25 m) and large green spaces in the center and west (left) portions of the study area. The 2D-based SPBC indicated a core pathway in a dense, highly urbanized area, whereas the 3D-based path did not include this area (Fig. 14). This suggests that green spaces within highly urbanized areas contribute greatly to connectivity when it is assessed in 2D. Moreover, we found that the area of the core pathway (≥ 0.5 SD) was wider in the 2D SPBC (11,146 grid cells, 5.80% of the study area) than in the 3D SPBC (7,280 grid cells, 3.79% of the study area).

Fig. 14
figure 14

Z-distribution maps showing the most important pathway (SPBC) derived from the a 2D permeability map and b the 3D permeability map. Colors indicate standard deviations from each mean centrality value

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Choi, H., Song, Y., Kang, W. et al. LiDAR-derived three-dimensional ecological connectivity mapping for urban bird species. Landscape Ecol 36, 581–599 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-020-01165-8

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