Corridoi ecologici

Biodiversityv00.50 credits/per_km2

Responsible:Niccolò Calandri

Ecological Corridors

Overview

Ecological corridors are linear or elongated landscape elements that provide functional connectivity between fragmented habitat patches. They enable wildlife movement, gene flow, seed dispersal, and climate-driven range shifts across otherwise isolated natural areas.

Corridor identification is fundamental for landscape-level conservation planning, as habitat fragmentation is one of the primary drivers of biodiversity loss globally. By maintaining or restoring connectivity, ecological corridors help sustain viable populations, enable natural recolonization after local extinctions, and increase ecosystem resilience to climate change.

The corridor data is stored as vector geometries in the internal database (protected_areas table with source='ecological_corridors'), derived from European geospatial data catalogues and connectivity analyses.

Calculation Methodology

Corridor identification approach:

Ecological corridors are identified through a combination of:

Structural connectivity analysis — Identification of continuous natural land cover elements (hedgerows, riparian strips, forest belts) connecting protected areas
Least-cost path modeling — Computation of optimal movement paths between habitat patches based on landscape resistance surfaces
European designation data — Integration of officially designated green infrastructure corridors from EU and national databases

Data integration:

WDPA (World Database on Protected Areas) — provides anchor habitat patches
KBA (Key Biodiversity Areas) — identifies priority areas for connectivity
Natura 2000 — European network of protected sites
EU Geospatial Data Catalogue — officially designated corridor geometries

Output: Vector polygons representing corridor extent, stored with attributes including corridor type, width, and connected habitat patches.

Data Sources

Source	Provider	Type	Coverage
European Commission Geospatial Data Catalogue	EC/JRC	Vector (corridors)	Europe
WDPA	UNEP-WCMC / IUCN	Vector (protected areas)	Global
Key Biodiversity Areas	BirdLife / IUCN	Vector (KBAs)	Global
Natura 2000	EEA	Vector (designated sites)	Europe

Technical Notes

Corridor data is primarily available for European territories; global coverage is limited
Corridor effectiveness depends on width, habitat quality, and the presence of barriers (roads, urban areas)
The dataset represents structural corridors; functional connectivity (actual species movement) requires species-specific modeling
Regular updates incorporate new protected area designations and land cover changes

References

Hilty, J.A., Worboys, G.L., Keeley, A. et al. (2020). "Guidelines for conserving connectivity through ecological networks and corridors". Best Practice Protected Area Guidelines Series No. 30. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN.
EEA (2020). "Green Infrastructure and Territorial Cohesion". EEA Technical Report.
Saura, S., Bertzky, B., Bastin, L. et al. (2018). "Protected area connectivity: Shortfalls in global targets and country-level priorities". Biological Conservation, 219, pp. 53–67.

Data Sources & References

Sources

WRD_WDPAX_25

WRD_KBAXX_25

EUR_N2KXX_25

CAN_CPCAD_23

USA_PADXX_25

Methodology

I corridoi ecologici vengono estratti dal database interno (tabella protected_areas con source='ecological_corridors'), basati su dati del European Commission Geospatial Data Catalogue e analisi di connettività. I corridoi ecologici sono elementi lineari del paesaggio che permettono la connettività tra habitat frammentati, facilitando: il movimento e la migrazione della fauna, il flusso genico tra popolazioni isolate, la dispersione di semi e propaguli, e la resilienza degli ecosistemi ai cambiamenti climatici. L'estrazione avviene tramite query spaziale per identificare i corridoi che intersecano l'area di interesse. Viene applicata la deduplicazione per geometrie con sovrapposizione superiore al 99%. Per ogni corridoio vengono calcolate: la distanza minima dal campo al corridoio più vicino, e la percentuale del campo all'interno di corridoi. La visualizzazione utilizza una colormap Blues con intensità proporzionale all'importanza del corridoio. I dati vettoriali vengono rasterizzati con un bordo di 100m per evitare artefatti ai margini.