12. Urban Ecological Networks for Biodiversity Conservation in Cities

Triggered by concerns of global biodiversity loss, cities are increasingly called upon to play an increased role in biodiversity conservation, leading to a surge in interest in urban biodiversity conservation. In playing this role, greening of cities needs to move beyond mere provision of amenities or ecosystem services to one of providing habitats for native biodiversity. This chapter describes one of the approaches for enhancing urban biodiversity conservation through the ecological network approach. The concept of ecological networks is not new in the field of ecology. However, its application to cities, both in conceptual and operational forms, is highly limited. As a high-rise, high-density city in which biodiversity conservation is threatened by other competing land uses, Singapore is used as an example to illustrate the development and application of the ecological network approach. The ecological network is built on the concept of network, spatial and landscape cohesions. Using methods in landscape ecology, remote sensing, biodiversity conservation and the Analytic Hierarchy Process, this chapter describes how a toolkit for ecological network can be developed, as well as the efficacy of its use for biodiversity management. The toolkit is categorized into monitoring tools, mapping tools, and communication and decision making tools. The learning outcomes gleaned from the research are presented as the 5-multis: multispecies, multiscalar, multilevel, multifunctionality, and multidisciplinarity.