Conservation and management of forest patches and corridors in suburban landscapes

Forest patches and corridors in the suburban landscape can be viewed as stepping stones between urban forests and forests in the adjacent forested landscape. The construction of a motorway around Ljubljana, Slovenia, has broken up, to a large extent, natural connectivity between urban vegetation and natural vegetation in the suburban landscape. A sample section of the planned Ljubljana–Maribor motorway traversing a case study area was used to show that the motorway will severely affect several tree corridors and break up forest patches in the suburban landscape north-east of Ljubljana. Existing forest patches and corridors enable migration between larger forest complexes to the west and east. The proposed section of motorway traversing the study area will break up most of these interconnections or at least aggravate the situation. Data on land uses and on the arrangement of forests, forest remains, corridors and tree belts in the study area were collected using satellite images. A model of a new connectivity was established using GIS. This study suggests that new corridors of trees be established along the motorway to connect the fragmented remains of the ecological infrastructure. Such a network of forest patches and corridors would represent a higher connectivity of natural vegetation and would constitute a necessary tool for the preservation of interconnections between urban and suburban forests in the suburban landscape. These areas of natural vegetation could also be one of the solutions to the conservation of biodiversity in the urban forests of Ljubljana.