Description

Scale as linked to D2.2 framework

• National
• City
• Neighborhood 
• Street
• Household
• Object

Data source [ link to data framework]

• Urban metabolism/Material Flow Analysis
• Life cycle inventory databases

Needs

• Land occupation and transformation flows
• required tool: 
  • LCA tools such as openLCA
  • EPESUS tool
  • Simple matrix based calculation (MS Excel possible)

Expected Outputs

• Quantitative
• Unit: Global Species Equivalent Lost

Calculation methods

• The indicator selected is the potential species loss (PSL) from land use based on the method described by Chaudhary et al. (2015). The indicator represents regional species loss taking into account the effect of land occupation displacing entirely or reducing the species that would otherwise exist on that land, the relative abundance of those species within the ecoregion, and the overall global threat level for the affected species. The indicator can be applied both as a regional indicator (PSLreg), where changes in relative species abundance within the ecoregion is included, and as a global indicator (PSLglo) where also the threat level of the species on a global scale is included. The indicator covers five taxonomic groups; birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and vascular plants. The taxonomic groups can be analyzed separately or can be aggregated to represent the potentially disappeared fraction (PDF) of species. Land use types covered by the method include intensive forestry, extensive forestry, annual crops, permanent crops, pasture, and urban land. The reference state is a current natural or close to natural habitat in the studied ecoregion

Links and references

• Chaudhary et al. (2015), Quantifying Land Use Impacts on Biodiversity: Combining Species–Area Models and Vulnerability Indicators, Environ. Sci. Technol., 49 (16), pp 9987–9995
• Olson et al. (2001), Terrestrial Ecoregions of the World: A New Map of Life on Earth, BioScience, 51(11):933-938