Skip to Content

3.2.1  BAF – Biotope Area Factor

Version 2.2 by Emily West on 2022/01/10 14:39

3.2.1 BAF – BIOTOPE AREA FACTOR

TopicUrban challengesSub-challenges
Environment3 - Biodiversity and Urban Space3.2 Urban Space Development and Regeneration
Description
The BAF is calculated by dividing the amount of surface area available for nature and vegetation by the total surface area considered. Each type of soil / ground cover / land use is affected a coefficient related to its potential for vegetation growth & nature implementation (e.g. sealed surface = 0; semi-permeable = 0.3; green wall = 0.5; green roof = 0.7; in-ground plantations = 1). Thresholds and goals can then be determined based on the expected performance or current land use / urban planning objectives (e.g. the City of Berlin expects BAF to be produced for each new project – the result must be between 0.3 and 0.6, depending of the project’s nature). The BAF takes values between 0 and 1. It increases with in-ground planted areas.
Scale as linked to D2.2 framework
  • Neighborhood 
  • Street
  • Household
  • Object
Data source [ link to data framework]
  • Geodatabase of land use / land cover
Needs
  • Land use map
  • Ground cover / surface materials
Expected Outputs
  • Quantitative
  • Unit: %
  • Could be mapped
Calculation methods
  • formula: BAF = ecologically-effective surface areas / total land area
  • GIS
Links and references
  • Becker, G. M. R., & Mohren, R. (1990). The Biotope Area Factor as an Ecological Parameter. Landschaft Planen & Bauen, Berlin. Available: http://www. stadtentwicklung. berlin. de, 24.
  • Liénard, S., & Clergeau, P. (2011). Trame Verte et Bleue: Utilisation des cartes d’occupation du sol pour une première approche qualitative de la biodiversité. Cybergeo: European Journal of Geography .
  • Huang, P.-S., Tsai, S.-M., Lin, H.-C., Tso, I.-M., 2015. Do Biotope Area Factor values reflect ecological effectiveness of urban landscapes? A case study on university campuses in central Taiwan. Landsc. Urban Plan. 143, 143–149. doi:10.1016/j.landurbplan.2015.07.004
  • Pao-Shen Huang, Su-Mei Tsai, Hui-Chen Lin, I-Min Tso, Do Biotope Area Factor values reflect ecological effectiveness of urban landscapes? A case study on university campuses in central Taiwan, In Landscape and Urban Planning, Volume 143, 2015, Pages 143-149, ISSN 0169-2046, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2015.07.004. (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016920461500 1425)
  • Taking biodiversity into account in local urban planning rules : a synthesis from the French Ministry for Housing and Territorial Equality (French) – (link