| Tayside Biodiversity - Tayside
Biodiversity Action Plan - Urban -
Built and Developed Environment |
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DEFINITION
Built up areas and greenspace are intrinsically important for biodiversity, providing
a contact between people and the places they are familiar with or explore
from home. All urban areas within Tayside will be included within this Habitat
Action
Plan – from small villages to larger towns and cities.
Managed greenspace includes parks, gardens and amenity greenspace, civic space,
children’s play areas, sports facilities, natural and semi-natural greenspaces,
allotments, graveyards and cemeteries. Transport corridors and residential areas
are also included, as are private gardens which provide invaluable urban space
for wildlife.
Many of these will be subject to separate Habitat Action Plans, including: |
Businesses with Land;
Golf Courses;
Hospitals, Sheltered Housing and Nursing Homes;
School, College and University Grounds;
Urban and Community Woodland;
Burial Grounds (Kirkyards and Cemeteries);
Urban Waters. |
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CURRENT
STATUS AND EXTENT OF HABITAT
Tayside is home to over 385,000 people and more than three quarters of them live
in an urban environment. They come into contact with various types of managed
greenspace which include:
approximately 1,950 hectares of parks and open space;
440 ha. of school grounds;
over 400 playgrounds;
223 cemeteries. |
Derelict and vacant land
also provides shelter for wildlife and in Tayside it is estimated
there is some 700 ha. that come
into this category.
All of these areas provide havens for a rich variety of biodiversity and excellent
educational opportunities.
NATURE CONSERVATION IMPORTANCE
Urban areas offer a mosaic of habitats suitable for an unexpectedly large variety
of wildlife. Many buildings offer important roost sites for swifts, house martins
and bats. Some urban industrial buildings offer sites for kestrels, barn owls
and peregrine falcons. Buildings, old walls and bridges can all support bats,
bees and beetles, as well as lichens and mortar-loving plants such as wall rue.
Railway and roadside verges provide habitats for a range of species associated
with grassland and woodland. Railways and roads, as well as rivers and burns
can facilitate the spread of both native and non-native species. Some invasive
species such as Giant hogweed and Japanese knotweed cause problems to the native
flora.
Private gardens are an important resource for biodiversity, creating a web of
wildlife corridors which enable many species to colonise other areas.
Greenspaces within towns and villages often support species commonly found in
the wider countryside such as uncommon grassland flowers and a number orchid
species. |
KEY
SPECIES
(those marked * are non-native invasive species) P = UK Priority species C =
UK species of conservation concern
| Mammals |
Pipistrelle bat |
Pipistrellus pipistrellus |
P |
| Brown long-eared bat |
Plecotus auritus |
C |
| Hedgehog |
Erinaceus europaeus |
C |
| Birds |
Song thrush |
Turdus philomelos |
P |
| House sparrow |
Passer domesticus |
|
| House martin |
Delichon urbica |
C |
| Swift |
Apus apus |
|
| Moorhen |
Gallinula chloropus |
|
| Heron |
Ardea cinerea |
|
| Tawny owl |
Strix aluco |
C |
| Kestrel |
Falco tinnunculus |
C |
| Amphibians and Reptiles |
Common toad |
Bufo bufo |
C |
| Common frog |
Rana temporaria |
C |
| Fish |
Brown trout |
Salmo trutta |
|
| Invertebrates |
Ringlet butterfly |
Aphantopus hyperantus |
|
| Meadow brown butterfly |
Maniola jurtina |
|
| Red admiral butterfly |
Vanessa atalanta |
|
| Peacock butterfly |
Inachis io |
|
| Painted lady butterfly |
Vanessa cardui |
|
| Orange tip butterfly |
Anthocharis cardamines |
|
| grasshoppers, damselflies and dragonflies |
|
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| New Zealand flatworm |
Artioposthia triangulata |
* |
| Plants |
Ox-eye daisy |
Leucanthemum vulgare |
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| Northern marsh orchid |
Dactylorhiza purpurella |
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| Wall rue |
Asplenium ruta-muraria |
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| Common knapweed |
Centaurea nigra |
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| Rosebay willowherb |
Chamerion angustifolium |
* |
| Giant hogweed |
Heracleum mantegazzianum |
* |
| Japanese knotweed |
Fallopia japonica |
* |
| lichens |
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| fungi |
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NATIONAL
BIODIVERSITY CONTEXT
There is a UK Broad Habitat Statement for urban areas, which has the following
objective:
Maintain
the existing diversity and extent of wildlife in all urban
areas, expanding the range and distribution of rare and common
species and
enabling this resource to be utilised as an educational tool. |
Measures to be considered nationally include:
Survey and evaluate
the full range of urban habitats (including buildings) in terms of their
importance in maintaining wildlife interest;
Protect sites important for wildlife from inappropriate development;
Encourage the integration of green networks (including a full range of
wildlife habitats) in planning and developments within the urban environment;
Implement strategies to enable the use of vacant and derelict land, either
temporarily or permanently, as wildlife habitats;
Incorporate the conservation and enhancement of wildlife into the design
and management of urban Greenspace;
Encourage community and individual action to survey, plan for and manage
urban wildlife habitats;
Promote wild space in urban areas as an educational resource to inform
communities about local wildlife in the context of the wider environment;
Expand the range and distribution of wildlife found in urban areas through
sympathetic management;
Ensure 50% of all urban wildlife areas are under sympathetic management,
at the same time as increasing the extent of the wild areas and diversity
of species within these areas - by 2005. |
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