Indigenous biodiversity, restoration and the
perfect New Zealand City
Bruce Clarkson, Cilla Wehi &
Lars Brabyn
Important note to users
„
„
„
„
This power point is as presented at the New Zealand Ecological Society Conference
on 28 August 2006.
It is provided here, following numerous requests, for use and discussion on the
condition that it is copyright and not to be quoted or used in any publication or report
as the research is currently being prepared for publication.
It is also important to recognize that the data has been analyzed using a range of
concepts of a “city” and comparison between different components of data may not
be valid. For example, for the urban rural gradient curves we used an algorithm to
define the built up area of the city first- the matrix of buildings houses and streets
with no large discontinuities. Then we defined 5km, 10 km and 20 km buffers. The
aim was to compare structurally/ ecologically equivalent parts of the city rather than
just variable historical administrative units. This allowed us to determine the
persistence or penetration of ecological features into the built up matrix. For other
statistics presented the administrative boundary is used. This will all be fully
explained in the forthcoming publication.
If you have any comments or questions on the powerpoint e-mail Bruce Clarkson
([email protected]).
Napier
The Listener view:
“the results [so far] are middling
to downright mediocre”
Our aims:
ƒ measure progress in
bringing nature back
into the 20 largest cities
ƒ consider perfect city
from an ecologist’s
perspective
New Plymouth
Method
www.southalabama.edu
„
Postal questionnaire
„
GIS analysis of LCDB2
and LENZ (limitations)
„
Yardstick 2005
„
Watching brief of urban
ecology in New Zealand
Method:
built up area and 5km, 10km and 20km buffers
LCDB2 background
Indigenous cover has been
systematically removed
New Plymouth
Dunedin
Palmerston North
Area of green space to indigenous coverconnections between parks and gardens
and biodiversity
% Urban
parkland
Min
% Indigenous
Cover
3.5
< 1%
Dunedin
Invercargill, Napier &
Palmerston North
Mean 7.3
1.96
Max
11.4
8.5
New Plymouth
New Plymouth
Urban-rural gradients
Hastings (7)
40
30
20
10
0 0
5
10
15
20
Nelson (7)
40
30
20
10
0
0
5
10
15
20
Urban-rural gradients
Wellington
Wellington (5)
(5)
40
30
20
10
0 0
5
10
15
20
New
New Plymouth
Plymouth (1)
(1)
40
30
20
10
0
0
5
10
15
20
Central Auckland
Northern Auckland
Tauranga
Southern Auckland
Whangarei
Hamilton
West Auckland
Rotorua
New Plymouth
Wellington
Lower Hutt
Porirua
Palmerston Nth
Wanganui
Nelson
Napier
Hastings
Invercargill
Dunedin
Christchurch
New Zealand cities cover a wide range
of different land environments
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
0
3
Tauranga
4
North Auckalsnd
5
West Auckalnd
Wellington
Porirua
Napier
Invercargill
Hastings
Central Auckland
Whangarei
South Auckland
Palmerston North
Nelson
Lower Hutt
Hamilton
Dunedin
Wanganui
Rotorua
New Plymouth
Christchurch
Diversity of habitats and
environments in cities
Habitats within cities
include:
• Geothermal
•Fernland
•Tall tussock grassland
•Matagouri
•Subalpine shrubland
2
1
Where is restoration effort
currently focused (in 2006)?
No.
restoration
projects
Spending
$
Min
0
0
Mean
9.8
293,500
Max
36
808,000
New Brighton,
Christchurch sand
dunes
Napier estuary
Special opportunities
„
Potential for intensive
human intervention
„
Lack of grazing animals
„
Propagation and growth of
threatened species
„
Interactive relationship of
people and environment
Paritutu Reserve
New Plymouth
*
10 mm
Where are cities on the
restoration journey?
„
Table based on
information from
20 largest cities
Progress since
2003 Big City
Survey?
Criteria
/20
Inventory
10
Sufficient weed and pest control 8
Policies to prevent further
clearance
7
Biodiversity plan or strategy
4
Specific biodiversity staff
3
Biodiversity monitoring network
0
Iconic species as indicators of
success?
„
Are tui nesting in
your city? 14/20
„
Are cabbage trees
regenerating in your
city? 14/20
Tui Photo: Max McRae
Restoration, reconstruction and
retrofitting
Total size of existing and potential urban indigenous resource
8000
„
Have you got
enough?
Aim: 10% of city
built up area?
7000
6000
Area (ha)
„
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
Forest
Scrub
Freshw ater
Estuarine
Other
Ecosystem type
Min top up needed:
Max top up needed:
(%)
1.5% New Plymouth
9.5%+
Area
34 ha New Plymouth
1365 ha Christchurch
Different solutions for different cities
Restore the gullies and link them to the river,
the lakes and forest remnants (potential 810
ha of 9427 ha; 8.6%)
Restore 10 ha; Reconstruct 190 ha
Urban-periurban interdependencies:
native fish
All sites fished
Banded kokopu
Spotlighting
N
Banded kokopu
0
2 km
Slide and research: Brendan Hicks
Tui movements in the Waikato
Slide and research: John Innes
Slide and research: Andrea Dekrout
15+ bats in exotic
trees
2 bats commute
into Hamilton
nightly
Hamilton
5++ bats in remnant
Kahikatea
1 bat commutes into
Hamilton nightly
20+ bats in remnant Kahikatea
2 bats commute into Hamilton
nightly
So what is the
perfect city?
„
Ecological ‘nodes’ and matrix
„
Green veining
„
Representative ecosystems
„
Iconic species successfully
breeding / regenerating
„
Ecosystem management
capability
„
Relevant research
Nga mihi
The cities that
responded to our
many questions
Researchers who
provided unpublished
information
Funding from FRST
Contract UOWX0501