LOCUS: Modelling allocation of agricultural land use to improve biodiversity
Project manager: Gregor Levin
Dept: Policy Analysis
Project period: 15-09-2008 - 14-09-2011
Financed by: The Danish Research Council for Technology and Production Sciences
Background
To conserve biodiversity in agricultural landscapes, it is crucial to maintain and improve habitat sizes and connectivity between habitats. Set-aside- and permanent grasslands are well suited to function as corridors and buffer zones, which can increase the size and spatial connectivity of existing habitats. However, these functions are highly dependent on the exact spatial allocation of set-aside and permanent grassland. Existing regulations do not recognize the potential of their allocation for improving habitat structure.
Objectives and hypothesis
The central hypothesis of the proposed project is that spatial structure of habitats, and consequently opportunities to preserve biodiversity, can be significantly improved by means of explicit allocation of set-aside land and permanent grassland. To examine this hypothesis, the main objective is to develop a multiple criteria prioritization method. The method will aim to support geographically explicit allocation of set-aside areas and permanent grassland, with the purpose of improving habitat structure. The specific objectives are to:
- develop a method for prioritization of criteria for allocation of set-aside land and permanent grassland to improve habitat structure
- implement a spatial model for allocation of set-aside land and permanent grassland based on the above prioritization
- produce scenarios exemplifying probable land-use shifts due to climatic changes and/or changes in the agricultural sector, and analyse the impacts in relation to improvement of habitat structure
- apply spatial metrics to assess impacts of modelled habitat structure on biodiversity
- analyse and discuss the policy and regulatory changes required to improve spatial structure of habitats
Methodology
The work is divided into three work packages as illustrated in the figure below. WP1 is concerned with development of a spatial model for improved habitat structure. In WP2 the spatial model is applied to develop future scenarios. In WP3, scenario outputs are used to assess impacts of habitat structure on biodiversity. Finally, limitations and potentials with regard to improvement of habitat structure are discussed in order to elucidate the policy and regulatory changes required.
