DETECTION OF ECOLOGICAL NETWORKS AND CONNECTIVITY WITH ANALYZING THEIR EFFECTS ON SUSTAINABLE URBAN DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

Rapid urbanization is a leading process for the global environmental problems such as climate change, massive loss of natural habitats, an increase of air, water, soil quality and social troubles. Within the scope of elimination of these effects, detecting, preserving and managing a strategically planned ecological network can provide ecological, economic, social and cultural benefits. Specially, connectivity of landscape patches in urban areas is an important factor for urban ecosystem cycle. Ecological studies under these circumstances are concentrated in urban areas and strategies are being developed to create green systems by establishing links between green areas. In this study, a method based on the graph theory has been proposed to create ecological links between important landscape patches in the Chennai City and the effects of the created system on the city has been discussed. Firstly, a comprehensive database is created for Chennai in the GIS. And then, important urban landscape patches and connectivity are detected with use of Conefor software that enhances the quality of landscape patches and ensures that landscape connectivity is sustainable. With this scope, we used integral index of connectivity (IIC) index and the probability of connectivity (PC) index that have been known to show an enhanced performance for urban habitat conservation planning and change monitoring applications. Ultimately, the resulting findings are mapped in the GIS environment, and the ecological, social and cultural impacts of the system are discussed based on international literature.