TY - JOUR

T1 - Towards the integration of urban planning and biodiversity conservation through collaboration

AU - Wood, Greg

AU - Whyatt, Duncan

AU - Stevens, Carly

N1 - Date of Acceptance: 04/08/15 Evidence of Acceptance unavailable. Corresponding author is intercollating until Jan 2016. This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Environmental Technology and Innovation. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Environmental Technology and Innovation, 4, 2015 DOI: 10.1016/j.eti.2015.08.002

PY - 2015/10

Y1 - 2015/10

N2 - Despite aspirations to halt biodiversity loss by 2020 under the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, urban development continues to negatively impact UK wildlife and habitats. Reasons behind continued biodiversity decline are examined through the use of semi-structured interviews with ecologists, statutory regulators and land developers.. It is found that despite strict legislation and best practice, for both planning and ecology, there is still much room for subjectivity regarding the protection of specific ecological features and the implementation of the mitigation hierarchy. Interviews also revealed that such subjectivity often facilitates the prioritisation of commercial over ecological benefits during site design. Furthermore, many felt an over reliance on the protection of individual animals, as opposed to maintaining functional connectivity for conservation of wider populations was detrimental to both the development industry and ecology. Our findings support the case for further research into the development of innovative geographical information systems to allow spatial deliberation, and collaborative decision-making between the three stakeholder groups.

AB - Despite aspirations to halt biodiversity loss by 2020 under the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, urban development continues to negatively impact UK wildlife and habitats. Reasons behind continued biodiversity decline are examined through the use of semi-structured interviews with ecologists, statutory regulators and land developers.. It is found that despite strict legislation and best practice, for both planning and ecology, there is still much room for subjectivity regarding the protection of specific ecological features and the implementation of the mitigation hierarchy. Interviews also revealed that such subjectivity often facilitates the prioritisation of commercial over ecological benefits during site design. Furthermore, many felt an over reliance on the protection of individual animals, as opposed to maintaining functional connectivity for conservation of wider populations was detrimental to both the development industry and ecology. Our findings support the case for further research into the development of innovative geographical information systems to allow spatial deliberation, and collaborative decision-making between the three stakeholder groups.

KW - Collaborative GIS

KW - Commercial Ecology

KW - Ecological Legislation

KW - Development Site

KW - Planning

KW - Biodiversity

U2 - 10.1016/j.eti.2015.08.002

DO - 10.1016/j.eti.2015.08.002

M3 - Journal article

VL - 4

SP - 218

EP - 226

JO - Environmental Technology and Innovation

JF - Environmental Technology and Innovation

SN - 2352-1864

ER -