Integration of ecological connectivity assessment into biodiversity-sensitive urban planning: modelling ecological impacts of residential development in planned urbanization zones in western Lyon (France)
Abstract
Although integration of ecological connectivity into spatial planning is essential to prevent biodiversity loss, planning documents rarely provide operational guidance for performing this. This study combines ecological network modeling with a residential development model constrained by existing urban zoning to assess how planned residential development may affect connectivity. The approach is applied to four development scenarios for a large peri-urban region west of Lyon (France): (1) a realistic scenario based on housing forecasts and designated zones for future urbanization (AU zones), (2) full urbanization of all AU zones, (3) prioritization of residential development in zones with the lowest connectivity impact, and (4) prioritization of residential development with the highest impact. Connectivity was quantified using the equivalent connectivity index (EC) for four species profiles representing forest and open-area taxa (birds and mammals). The results reveal strong discrepancies between housing targets and the surface available in AU zones: only 67.5% of the dwellings prescribed by planning documents could be allocated within these zones. Ecological impacts remained low at the regionalscale (EC changes between –0.25% and –1.43%) but varied substantially across scenarios and species, indicating that planning choices do influence connectivity. For the same housing volume, scenario 3 reduced connectivity losses by up to 50% compared with scenario 4. The zone-ranking procedure derived from the simulations provides a practical tool to identify areas where urbanization should be avoided, or conversely, may proceed with limited ecological impact. This framework supports biodiversity-sensitive urban planning by operationalizing avoidance and reduction strategies within existing regulatory contexts.
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BibTeX
@article{bourgeois2026integration,
title = {{Integration of ecological connectivity assessment into biodiversity-sensitive urban planning: modelling ecological impacts of residential development in planned urbanization zones in western Lyon (France)}},
author = {Marc Bourgeois},
journal = {Journal of Environmental Management},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1016/j.jenvman.2026.130673},
url = {https://hal.science/hal-05800870v1},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Integration of ecological connectivity assessment into biodiversity-sensitive urban planning: modelling ecological impacts of residential development in planned urbanization zones in western Lyon (France)
AU - Marc Bourgeois
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/15
JO - Journal of Environmental Management
DO - 10.1016/j.jenvman.2026.130673
UR - https://hal.science/hal-05800870v1
AB - Although integration of ecological connectivity into spatial planning is essential to prevent biodiversity loss, planning documents rarely provide operational guidance for performing this. This study combines ecological network modeling with a residential development model constrained by existing urban zoning to assess how planned residential development may affect connectivity. The approach is applied to four development scenarios for a large peri-urban region west of Lyon (France): (1) a realistic scenario based on housing forecasts and designated zones for future urbanization (AU zones), (2) full urbanization of all AU zones, (3) prioritization of residential development in zones with the lowest connectivity impact, and (4) prioritization of residential development with the highest impact. Connectivity was quantified using the equivalent connectivity index (EC) for four species profiles representing forest and open-area taxa (birds and mammals). The results reveal strong discrepancies between housing targets and the surface available in AU zones: only 67.5% of the dwellings prescribed by planning documents could be allocated within these zones. Ecological impacts remained low at the regionalscale (EC changes between –0.25% and –1.43%) but varied substantially across scenarios and species, indicating that planning choices do influence connectivity. For the same housing volume, scenario 3 reduced connectivity losses by up to 50% compared with scenario 4. The zone-ranking procedure derived from the simulations provides a practical tool to identify areas where urbanization should be avoided, or conversely, may proceed with limited ecological impact. This framework supports biodiversity-sensitive urban planning by operationalizing avoidance and reduction strategies within existing regulatory contexts.
SN - 0301-4797
SN - 1095-8630
ER -