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This book offers a comprehensive overview of the intellectual developments in urban conservation. The authors offer unique insights from UNESCO's World Heritage Centre and the book is richly illustrated with colour photographs. Examples are drawn from urban heritage sites worldwide from Timbuktu to Liverpool to demonstrate key issues and best practice in urban conservation today. The book offers an invaluable resource for architects, planners, surveyors and engineers worldwide working in heritage conservation, as well as for local authority conservation officers and managers of heritage sites.

Historic Urban Landscape is a new approach to urban heritage management, promoted by UNESCO, and currently one of the most debated issues in the international preservation community. However, few conservation practitioners have a clear understanding of what it entails, and more importantly, what it can achieve. * Examples drawn from urban heritage sites worldwide – from Timbuktu to Liverpool * Richly illustrated with colour photographs * Addresses key issues and best practice for urban conservation

A mosaic of intact native and human-modified vegetation use can provide important habitat for top predators such as the puma (Puma concolor), avoiding negative effects on other species and ecological processes due to cascade trophic interactions. This study investigates the effects of restoration scenarios on the puma's habitat suitability in the most developed Brazilian region (São Paulo State). Species Distribution Models incorporating restoration scenarios were developed using the species' occurrence information to (1) map habitat suitability of pumas in São Paulo State, Southeast, Brazil; (2) test the relative contribution of environmental variables ecologically relevant to the species habitat suitability and (3) project the predicted habitat suitability to future native vegetation restoration scenarios. The Maximum Entropy algorithm was used (Test AUC of 0.84 ± 0.0228) based on seven environmental non-correlated variables and non-autocorrelated presence-only records (n = 342). The percentage of native vegetation (positive influence), elevation (positive influence) and density of roads (negative influence) were considered the most important environmental variables to the model. Model projections to restoration scenarios reflected the high positive relationship between pumas and native vegetation. These projections identified new high suitability areas for pumas (probability of presence >0.5) in highly deforested regions. High suitability areas were increased from 5.3% to 8.5% of the total State extension when the landscapes were restored for ≥ the minimum native vegetation cover rule (20%) established by the Brazilian Forest Code in private lands. This study highlights the importance of a landscape planning approach to improve the conservation outlook for pumas and other species, including not only the establishment and management of protected areas, but also the habitat restoration on private lands. Importantly, the results may inform environmental policies and land use planning in São Paulo State, Brazil.

Context The wildland–urban interface (WUI) is a landscape where buildings and wildland vegetation meet or mix, and is usually regarded as a high risk region because of the high impact of human activities. The expansion of the wildland–urban interface (WUI) could exacerbate environmental risks such as wildfire risk at the landscape scale. China’s dryland landscape provides an ideal case study for assessing WUI dynamics, as they are experiencing rapid urbanization and increasing vegetation cover. However, the morphological features, which is essential in landscape planning, are few recorded in the rapid increase in WUI landscape in China’s dryland. Methods We produced a set of WUI datasets for the five-year period of 1990–2020 in the drylands of China, and introduced landscape configuration metrics, such as Landscape Shape Index (LSI), Largest Patch Index (LPI), to analyze morphological changes in four WUI types across China’s dryland from 1990 to 2020, and correlated them with population and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) among 486 counties. Results We identified the WUI area in China’s dryland was spatially accounted for approximately one-tenth of the total area and was concentrated around big cities, exhibited a growth rate of 15% during the 30 years. WUI landscape heterogeneity showed substantial increases, with the LSI increased by 81.1%, and LPI decreased by 38.3%. The WUI area changes were significantly correlated with GDP and population changes; while some landscape configuration metrics showed significant correlations with GDP, but none with population. Conclusions The WUI fragmentation tendency implies greater exposure of homes and infrastructure to wildfire-prone areas and harder efforts on controlled burns and firefighting in dryland landscape management, especially around big cities. Furthermore, GDP growth may correspond to continued WUI expansion and fragmentation, even if population urbanization will be stagnating.

Context Human activities, particularly intensive agriculture, have caused significant environmental degradation, reduced ecosystem diversity, and increased vulnerability to global change. Recent international policies, such as the Global Biodiversity Framework’s 30 × 30 target, advocate for nature-based solutions (NbS) such as ecological restoration to address these impacts. In agricultural landscapes, however, there are concerns that restoration may impact food production. Objectives We investigated how forest restoration, as an NbS, changes the supply of ecosystem services (ES), including potential trade offs with agricultural output. Using the Montérégie region of Québec (southeastern Canada) as a case study, we assessed the influence of restoration extent, spatial configuration, and the original agricultural site conditions on the ES outcomes. Methods We modeled ES outcomes for seven ES (crop production, maple syrup production, deer hunting, water quality, carbon storage, pollination, and outdoor recreation) under nine scenarios, which varied by total amount of the landscape restored (3.3%, 10.8%, 30%) and initial conditions of the agricultural fields restored (randomly selected, degraded agricultural field, or abandoned agricultural field). Results Our findings indicate that increasing the amount of land restored enhances provision of most ES, though improvement varied by service. The initial condition of restored sites minimally influences ES outcomes. However, the spatial pattern of restoration plays a significant role in determining ES delivery, as restored sites enhance most ES through spillover effects up to 500 m. Conclusion This study underscores the potential for combining landscape ecology approaches and ES tools to forecast NbS outcomes and inform landscape planning.

ContextHabitat loss is a major factor influencing declines in landscape connectivity for many species, but forest patch configuration and changes in matrix permeability can also represent important drivers. An evaluation of which of these factors are predominant is key to guiding landscape planning at a regional scale.ObjectivesWe aimed to quantify the loss of jaguar (Panthera onca) habitat connectivity and to analyse the drivers behind this process in the Atlantic Forest.MethodsWe analysed trends in jaguar habitat connectivity between 1973 and 2015 in the Upper Paraná Atlantic Forest and the three countries that comprise the eco-region (Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay). We used graph-based indices and jaguar movement data to evaluate changes in forest area, forest patch configuration and matrix permeability.ResultsJaguar habitat connectivity decreased throughout the entire period, with a loss of up to 93% of connectivity. Changes in forest patch configuration and forest area loss were the main drivers of this trend, but the effect of decreased matrix permeability was also significant. These processes together largely increased the negative effect of forest area declines on jaguar habitat connectivity. Connectivity trends for the three countries in the study area were negative, with the highest forest decline in Paraguay and Brazil compared to Argentina.ConclusionsAnalysing landscape dynamics using metrics that go beyond measuring net forest area is key when assessing landscape connectivity for jaguars. Future studies evaluating landscape connectivity should incorporate habitat patch configuration and matrix permeability in addition to forest loss, aspects that should also be considered when undertaking habitat restoration measures.

Waterscapes are a valuable resource for aesthetic appreciation and human health, the majority of previous literature, however, generally explored these benefits by treating waterscapes as homogenous, limiting our understanding of the relationship between waterscape features and well-being. To address these knowledge gaps 16 videos were produced to represent waterscapes with different desired variables, and mental restoration, preference and perceived safety of these videos were measured by 53 respondents. The results indicate that: (1) within 20 m, the further away the visitors are from water bodies, the better the benefits will be; (2) in terms of mental restoration and preference, lakes are better than rivers, and fast water movement is more efficient than slow movement; (3) a protective fence along the water only enhance perceived safety; (4) females and postgraduate students obtain more restorative benefits from waterscapes than males and undergraduate students, respectively. These results can aid designers in enhancing the efficiency of waterscapes on the promotion of health and well-being.

Understanding the influence of landscape change on animal populations is critical to inform biodiversity conservation efforts. A particularly important goal is to understand how urban density affects the persistence of animal populations through time, and how these impacts can be mediated by habitat provision; but data on this question are limited for some taxa. Here, we use data from a citizen science monitoring program to investigate the effect of urbanization on patterns of frog species richness and occurrence over 13 years. Sites surrounded by a high proportion of bare ground (a proxy for urbanization) had consistently lower frog occurrence, but we found no evidence that declines were restricted to urban areas. Instead, several frog species showed declines in rural wetlands with low-quality habitat. Our analysis shows that urban wetlands had low but stable species richness; but also that population trajectories are strongly influenced by vegetation provision in both the riparian zone and the wider landscape. Future increases in the extent of urban environments in our study area are likely to negatively impact populations of several frog species. However, existing urban areas are unlikely to lose further frog species in the medium term. We recommend that landscape planning and management focus on the conservation and restoration of rural wetlands to arrest current declines, and the revegetation of urban wetlands to facilitate the re-expansion of urban-sensitive species.

Enhanced understanding of environmental restoration can be achieved by examining how urban park visitors’ perceptions of biodiversity contribute to their sense of environmental rejuvenation. In this study, a questionnaire survey was conducted among 554 visitors from five representative urban parks in Fuzhou, China, and a structural equation model was used to explore the interactions among perceived biodiversity, place attachment, and self-rated repair. The main findings were as follows: (1) Perceived biodiversity had significant positive and direct effects on place dependence and self-rated restoration, but not on place identity. It is worth noting that place dependence has a deep and direct impact on place identity. (2) Self-rated restoration could be directly influenced by perceived biodiversity and place dependence. The direct impact of perceived biodiversity showed more intensity than place dependence. (3) Place dependence can be the only intermediary or link in the chain between perceived biodiversity and self-rated restoration. Conversely, place identity may not act as an independent intermediary but can play a key role in the chain of intermediaries. The study not only advances our understanding of the complex relationship between perceived biodiversity, place attachment, and self-assessed restoration; it also provides practical implications for urban green eco-design initiatives, thereby contributing to the field of urban landscape planning and formulation.