A Faculty Member from the College of Education for Pure Sciences Publishes a Scientific Article on the Role of Urban Maps in Studying Biodiversity for Urban Sustainability.
A Faculty Member from the College of Education for Pure Sciences Publishes a Scientific Article on the Role of Urban Maps in Studying Biodiversity for Urban Sustainability.
A Faculty Member from the College of Education for Pure Sciences Publishes a Scientific Article on the Role of Urban Maps in Studying Biodiversity for Urban Sustainability.
Dr. Alia Abdullah Hantoush from the College of Education for Pure Sciences published a scientific article titled “The Role of Urban Maps in Studying Biodiversity for Urban Sustainability.”
In her article, she demonstrated that urban maps play a pivotal role in analyzing the urban environment by linking biological information to location and revealing the impact of urban and environmental changes on biodiversity. Urban maps are fundamental and crucial in studying biodiversity within cities; indeed, they are among the most important modern tools relied upon by life sciences and urban geography to monitor and spatially interpret biological changes.
Urban maps help researchers identify and interpret the areas where specific plant or animal species are prevalent, compare the increase and decrease of biodiversity between residential neighborhoods, industrial areas, and green spaces, and link pollution levels to changes in biodiversity. By relying on urban maps, it is possible to establish a link between:
• Factory locations and emissions in areas of traffic congestion and the decline in bird and insect populations.
• Locations of waste and chemical pollutants and changes in vegetation cover. This link helps to accurately explain the reasons for the decline or disappearance of species.
• Noise levels in congested areas can be identified through the analysis of noise and urban sprawl maps.
• Areas experiencing urban expansion that has led to the loss of natural habitats can be identified.
• Remaining green spaces can be compared and assessed for their capacity to support biodiversity.
Relevant authorities use urban maps to:
• Identify suitable locations for establishing new parks or small reserves within the city.
• Direct environmental campaigns toward the most degraded areas.
• Assess the environmental impact of development projects before implementation.
• Utilize modern technologies (GIS and remote sensing) to continuously and accurately update biological data, monitor changes in vegetation cover over time, and produce predictive biodiversity maps using environmental modeling.
Therefore, urban maps play a crucial role in studying biodiversity within cities, as they transform biological data into a clear spatial picture that helps in understanding environmental problems and making informed decisions to address them. This helps maintain ecosystem services by mapping the city’s “green infrastructure” (such as parks, urban forests, and rivers), ensuring the continuity of essential ecosystem services like air and water purification, local climate regulation, and stormwater management. Consequently, this helps mitigate the effects of climate change by combating “urban heat islands,” which contributes to cooling cities and reducing energy consumption for cooling.
