Integrating ecological networks into spatial planning . Ecological corridors, green infrastructures and ecosystem services

Ecological networks protect habitats and species endangered from effects of increasing urbanisation. Policies have shifted toward the creation of ecological networks with a focus on the preservation of biodiversity. Spatial planning and environmental assessments are essential instruments for addressing the integration of ecological networks issues in decision-making processes. The main objective of this thesis is to propose an expeditious methodological approach to understand by what means ecological corridors could be defined, evaluated, and integrated into planning issues, starting from available data in literature. The purpose of the proposed approaches concerns the prioritization of spatial elements, as ecological corridors, which can provide highly biologically valuable areas where species movement should be improved through an implementation of a framework of planning and management regulation. Least cost methods are suggested to study a “best” solution. These tools can describe linkages design for many species and it can be used to compare linkages design to alternative designs in order to satisfy cost or political constraints. In this thesis, potential ecological corridors for enhancing connectivity are expected to be managed into a new kind of plan which represents a quite flexible way to bring together available data, expert knowledge and technological support to obtain straightforward information to start planning processes in ecological terms; it could be a strategic way, since it can suggest where planning strategies to preserve the landscape biological integrity should be implemented in favour of an improved connectivity. In spatial planning, the adoption of procedures based on the Strategic Environmental Assessment to integrate ecological corridors concepts, during the drafting of the proposed plan, provides a reliable framework where the inclusion of environmental issues into decision-making contributes to building more sustainable and effective results.